“The EU cannot remain silent,” they said after the French far-left MEP legitimized the terrorist actions of Hamas. 

Almost hundred members of the French Senate from right and center parties have urged European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to lift the parliamentary immunity of extreme-left MEP Rima Hassan after her remarks legitimizing the actions of Hamas.

“The European Union cannot remain silent in the face of statements that undermine the values of peace and mutual respect on which it is founded”, the 94 Senators tate in their letter, quoted by daily Le Parisien.

For them, Rima Hassan’s comments “go beyond the framework of legitimate freedom of expression and are part of an unacceptable radicalization dynamic”. The parliamentary immunity enjoyed by Rima Hassan as an MEP “cannot be misused to protect speech that incites hatred or compromises public order”, they argue.

Last Thursday, Rima Hassan, who is a member of the extreme left ‘La France Insoumise’ (France Unbowed) party, triggered a political and judicial outcry when she recognized “the legitimate action of Hamas”, which justifies “armed struggle in a context of colonization”.

In a radio interview one day after Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, were laid to rest in Israel, she also claimed that they were not murdered by the Palestinian terrorist organization and pointed the finger of responsibility at the “occupation and colonization regime imposed by Israel”.

Article 9 of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure states that “any request addressed to the President by a competent authority of a Member State […] with a view to waiving the immunity of a Member […] shall be announced in plenary sitting and referred to the committee responsible”.

Do the 94 senators represent a “competent authority”? Roberta Metsola will have to decide.

FolIowing Hassan’s ‘’utterly unacceptable’’ remarks, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced that he had referred the matter to the Paris public prosecutor, under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He described the remarks as ‘’an apology for terrorism”.

In the aftermath, far-right MEP Marion Maréchal Le Pen called for Rima Hassan to be stripped of her French nationality. Born in Syria in a Palestinian refugee camp, Hassan  became a naturalized French citizen in 2010.

French Ministers François-Noël Buffet and Patrick Mignola did not rule out this possibility. “We have to ask the question”, said the former, stressing however that the procedure is still subject to strict criteria.