A FRENCH MP is being investigated by police for pro-Palestine comments.
French police summoned leading left-wing politician Mathilde Panot for a probe into an alleged “apology for terrorism” on Wednesday after she spoke out against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Panot, who is leader of France Unbowed (La France Insoumise/LFI), said in a press release: “We will not be silent. No summons, no intimidation of any kind will prevent us from protesting against the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
She denounced the investigation as unprecedented.
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“It is the first time in the history of the French republic that the head of an opposition group in parliament is summoned for such a serious reason on the basis of fallacious accusations,” she said.
“The Macronist regime has crossed all imaginable lines,” she added, referring to the government of President Emmanuel Macron.
The left-wing For Reunion (Pour La Réunion/PLR) party criticised the measures against Panot as “a worrying authoritarian drift”.
“The PLR is deeply concerned about the justice system being instrumentalised to silence political opponents who denounce the ongoing genocide on Palestinian territory,” the party said in a statement on Wednesday.
French authorities last week cancelled two conferences by LFI politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Lille, while Rima Hassan, a party member, has been summoned on charges of “apology for terrorism”.
A Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 led to the deaths of 1170 people.
The subsequent Israeli onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 34,262 people, mostly women and children.
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