how French MEPs voted

POLITICS – In the vagueness of the information arriving from Algeria, the European Parliament wanted to mark its solidarity with the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, held in prison since mid-November. This Thursday, January 23, MEPs adopted by a large majority a resolution demanding its “immediate and unconditional release”.

The text had been submitted in a transpartisan manner by several political groups (the socialists, the conservatives of the EPP, the nationalists of ECR, the liberals of Renew and the ecologists). It was finally voted on by 533 elected officials out of 605.

In detail, French socialists and ecologists unanimously voted in favor. From Raphaël Glucksmann to Marie Toussaint, via Emma Rafowicz, Pierre Jouvet, Aurore Lalucq, David Cormand or Mounir Satouri, no voice from these two left-wing groups was lacking. On the Macronist side either, since Nathalie Loiseau, like Valérie Hayer, Gilles Boyer and Pascal Canfin, mobilized in favor of the adoption of the resolution. Same on the right and the far right: Jordan Bardella, François-Xavier Bellamy, Nicolas Bay, Matthieu Valet and Malika Sorel voted for.

Nathalie Loiseau, former head of the Renaissance party list in the 2019 European elections, justified her vote during a preliminary speech: “I don’t always agree with what Boualem Sansal said, nor where he said it. But that doesn't matter at all. A writer's place is not in prison, he has no place behind bars.”.

“The New Stalinists”

On the other hand, on the side of the group The Left, of which La France insoumise is a part, the tensions are more marked. If Manon Aubry and Younous Omarjee abstained, some voted against the resolution, like Rima Hassan, Emma Fourreau, Arash Saeidi and Anthony Smith. Without, for the moment, having given an explanation for this vote.

This refusal to vote in favor of the release of the controversial writer sparked reactions from both the right and the left. PS senator Laurence Rossignol accuses the rebels who voted against of being “the new Stalinists”: “Yesterday Alexander Solzhenitsyn [célèbre dissident du régime soviétique, ndlr]today Boualem Sansal ».

On France Inter this January 23, the writer Leïla Slimani said “very angry” against the continued detention of Boualem Sansal. And even ” worry ” of the fate reserved for the author. “I hope that the Algerian authorities will come to their senses and understand that we cannot put someone in prison for their opinions”she continued. Beyond the case of the 75-year-old writer, the resolution adopted in the European Parliament also condemns the arrests “ of all other activists, political prisoners, journalists, human rights defenders and other detained or convicted persons” to have “ exercised their right to freedom of opinion and expression.

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