François-Xavier Bellamy and Rima Hassan are filing legal complaints against each other.
A war of words between French Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) François-Xavier Bellamy and Rima Hassan – sparked by a vote to prevent Hassan from becoming the third vice-chair of the European Parliament’s human rights (DROI) subcommittee – has escalated into a legal battle.
Bellamy, who hails from the centre-right The Republicans party (LR), spearheaded efforts to block Hassan’s election earlier this week, claiming previous comments she made describing Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel as legitimate “disqualify her from ever speaking about human rights”
Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian lawyer and politician from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party, has consistently denied the allegations. She says her comments to French outlet Le Crayon in November 2023, in which she reportedly said Hamas was carrying out legitimate actions, were taken out of context as a part of a political witch-hunt.
Her bid to become third vice-chair of the human rights subcommittee was blocked in Brussels on Tuesday, when committee members abided by Bellamy’s call to delay the appointment until September 5.
Hassan responded with a statement on social platform X: “For the moment,François-Xavier Bellamy and his little friends, close to the genocidal Israeli regime, sleep well at night. It will not last.”
Bellamy announced on Thursday he was suing Hassan for the post, which he says “directly targets” him in a way that “can only be interpreted as a direct physical threat.”
“Such a threat, against any citizen or elected representative, cannot be tolerated in a democratic society,” he added.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, is “aware” and “looking into” the comments made by Hassan, a parliament spokesperson confirmed to Euronews.
Hassan has snapped back with a press statement issued by her lawyers which condemns Bellamy’s complaint as a “political stratagem.” It says that two legal complaints will be lodged against the centre-right politician for public defamation and slander.
Messages of support have flooded in from France’s left-wing, which has been bolstered following its surprise victory in June’s snap legislative elections.
MEP Leïla Chaibi (The Left, France) said Hassan has been “harassed, defamed, threatened for months” and that efforts to exclude her preventing her from bringing the fight for peace and the rights of the Palestinian people to the European Parliament.
The Left group in the European Parliament has also made Hassan one of its coordinators in the human rights subcommittee, a role which carries little political influence but comes as a signal of defiance against efforts to block her candidature as vice-chair.
The group is the seventh biggest in the parliament but was due to secure the third vice-chairmanship of the DROI subcommittee before centrist and right-leaning forces voted to block her.
Bellamy’s The Republicans, which sits with the biggest faction in the hemicycle, the EPP, has been left battered and deeply divided after failed efforts to oust leader Eric Ciotti after he called for an alliance with the far-right National Rally in the run-up to June’s legislative poll. The vote saw the party lose 13 seats in the National Assembly.
The dispute raises tensions between France’s rival political factions even more. The country has been plunged into political paralysis after the June ballot, in which no party won a majority. The left-wing alliance has named Lucie Castets as its pick for prime minister, but President Macron has said he will delay the formation of a new government until after the Paris Olympic Games.