Black French MP told to 'go back to Africa' by far-right party member

The French parliament has adjourned its sitting after Black lawmaker Carlos Martens Bilongo was yelled at to go back to Africa by a member of a far-right party.

Bilongo, a member of the left-wing France Insoumise party, was addressing the chamber when the far-right member yelled, "Go back to Africa!," the party said on Twitter on Thursday.

"The extreme right remains what it has always been, racist and nauseating. A corresponding sanction must be pronounced immediately," it added.

Bilongo's colleagues, of the left-wing France Insoumis (France Unbowed) party, shouted 'Out, out, out!' following the assault.

Bilongo was asking a question about climate change when he was verbally assaulted in the Paris National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.

The lawmaker is a 31-year-old from a Congolese background.

'An African boat'?

Gregoire de Fournas, National Rally MP for the Gironde department in southwest France, is identified as the culprit.

De Fournas defended himself as he said he had been referring to 'an African boat' which had difficulty 'getting back into port'.

Marine Le Pen pledged the change the image of her notoriously racist party, which used to be called the National Front.

The party was founded by Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is now a convicted racist and Holocaust denier.

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