French lawmakers brandish Palestinian flag, clothing in parliament

The French parliament has erupted in tumult after a lawmaker stood up with a Palestinian flag, a week after another deputy was temporarily suspended for doing so.

Rachel Keke, a member of parliament for the France Unbowed (LFI) party from the Paris region, brandished the flag at the start of a session of questions to the government in the lower house on Tuesday.

She stood up amid a flood of Green, Communist and LFI lawmakers who had dressed in green, white, red and black for the occasion and arranged their seating so that from afar they looked like the Palestinian flag.

"No, no, no, no, no," said Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.

"I thought things were very clear and that you had, like everyone else, been able to read our rules," she said, calling for Keke to be sanctioned and temporarily suspending the session.

Earlier, the speaker had reminded the lawmakers that parliamentarians were supposed to express themselves "exclusively in the oral form".

Fellow LFI parliament member Sebastien Delogu brandished the flag at the same session last week, causing him to be suspended for two weeks and have his parliamentary allowance cut by half for two months.

Tensions in France

Keke, a former hotel chambermaid born in Ivory Coast, was elected to parliament in 2022.

She made a name for herself after winning a gruelling battle for better working conditions in the Paris hotel where she cleaned.

Israel's war on Gaza has sparked tensions in France, a country with the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe's biggest Muslim community.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to recognise an Palestinian state, but such a move should "come at a useful moment" and not be based on "emotion".

Jean-Noel Barrot, minister delegate for Europe, repeated this stance in parliament.