Victor Chabert, edited by Solène Leroux
modified to
11:09 a.m., June 29, 2022
A first controversy arose at the opening of the parliamentary session, after the inaugural speech of the Dean of the Bourbon Palace. The mission fell to José Gonzalez, RN deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône on Tuesday. He set the tone with words about French Algeria which set fire to the hemicycle, as much on the side of Nupes as of the majority.
The sixteenth legislature of the Fifth Republic is officially at work, after the opening of the parliamentary session of the new National Assembly on Tuesday. And a first controversy arose from the opening, after the inaugural speech of the dean of the Bourbon palace. According to the regulations, the oldest member of parliament presides over the first session of the National Assembly and makes an introductory speech. The mission therefore returned to José Gonzalez, RN deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône on Tuesday. He set the tone with words that set the Chamber on fire. The deputy evoked his memories of pied-noirs, a reference to French Algeria which made the Nupes and the majority jump.
Doubts about crimes by the French army in Algeria
After the usual greetings, the dean RN José Gonzalez, 79, gave himself up to the perch in a confidence about his life which outraged the ranks of the majority and the Nupes. He had a thought for his fallen friends in French Algeria. “I left part of my France and a lot of friends there. I am a man who saw his soul forever bruised,” he began, before continuing, visibly moved: “I think to my friends that I left there.”
Asked at the exit of the hemicycle on this passage of his speech, José Gonzalez persists and signs. “I don’t think” there were “crimes in Algeria in the French army.” “Maybe now we will have to review the story, but I don’t think so. Frankly, I’m not here to judge whether the OAS committed crimes. I don’t even know what the OAS was, or almost not.”
The end of demonization for Rousseau
For Sandrine Rousseau, ecologist deputy, the masks fall: “The de-demonization of the RN ended from the first session.”
Another controversy enameled the afternoon. The insoumis Louis Boyard, one of the youngest of the hemicycle, was asked to be secretary of the meeting. He refused to shake hands with RN deputies when they went up to vote at the perch. Between the National Rally and the Nupes, it did not take a single day for relations to become strained.