Thursday, European deputies voted at an overwhelming majority (533 votes for, 24 against and 48 abstentions) a resolution to request the release of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, incarcerated since mid-November in Algeria. And among those who did not vote “for”, the delegation of rebellious France, including Rima Hassan and Manon Aubry. Which did not fail to react, both on the left and right. 20 Minutes summary.
What happened?
A resolution to request the release of the writer Boualem Sansal as well as other criticisms of the Algerian power, was adopted Thursday in the European Parliament.
Boualem Sansal, 75 years old, has been incarcerated since mid-November in Algeria and prosecuted under article 87 bis of the penal code, which sanctions “as a terrorist or subversive act, any act aimed at the security of the State, the integrity of the territory, stability and normal functioning of institutions ”. According to The worldthe Algerian power would have badly took declarations of the writer to the French media Boundariesdeemed extreme right, taking up the position of Morocco according to which the territory of the country was truncated under French colonization for the benefit of Algeria.
The text, submitted Thursday by elected officials of five of the eight political groups of the European Parliament (Cuisters of the EPP, Socialists, ECR nationalists, Renew Liberals and Ecologists), was adopted by a large majority (533 votes to, 24 against ). The delegation of rebellious France (LFI) shared between votes against and abstentions. MP Rima Hassan voted against, while the group's leader, Manon Aubry, has abstained.
Who criticizes Rima Hassan's “against” vote?
As of Thursday, the reactions followed one another. First in the extreme right, with Jordan Bardella who spoke on X: “Things are clear: to the defense of a writer and his freedom of expression, the extreme left prefers arbitrariness of an authoritarian regime and the community interests of its electoral customers. »»
“By refusing to support a French citizen arbitrarily detained in the jails of Algerian power, the friends of (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) continue in this outrageous line which consists in systematically approving attacks against France,” wrote the president LR des Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand.
On Europe1/CNews, it was the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, who added: “You realize that this resolution asked for the immediate release of a sick man, of an elderly man. And Madame Rima Hassan says '' No, I refuse, I vote against ''. It's inhuman, it's politically scandalous. And I also ask LFI to justify itself. »»
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On the left too, the vote of MEPs LFI aroused an outcry. The former rebellious François Ruffin said he was “full disagreement” with the choice of his former comrades. “The place of a writer is not in prison, whether or not they agree with what he writes. Obviously we have to do everything for the release of a writer, “he reacted on France Inter.
“It's a shame!” Frankly, abstain or vote against such a factual text where there is nothing ideological, nothing historic that is questionable, it is simply endorsement of the imprisonment of an immense writer in jails and c ' is deeply scandalous, ”said on BFMTV/RMC Raphaël Glucksmann, who sits with the socialists. “Our vision of the world, our principles are not the same, our relationship to public debate is not the same. Let us stop hypocrisy, ”he argued. For the latter, this vote is an additional argument to justify the rupture in France between socialists and rebellious.
What does Rima Hassan answer?
Through several publications on X, MEP Rima Hassan responded to attacks on him. “Not to vote for this text is not to oppose the release of Mr. Sansal […] It is to oppose the instrumentalization which is made of his case, ”she defended himself.
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“We are of course attentive to human rights in Algeria as in the rest of the world and I invite the defenders of Sansal to deploy so much energy to defend the human rights of the Palestinians,” she added.
