Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – French MEP François-Xavier Bellamy and French MEP Rima Hassan are launching legal complaints against each other.
Why Are MEPs François-Xavier Bellamy and Rima Hassan in Dispute?
A dispute between French MEP François-Xavier Bellamy and MEP Rima Hassan flashed by a vote to avert Hassan from becoming the third vice-chair of the EU Parliament’s human rights subcommittee has shifted into a legal battle.
What Prompted Bellamy to Block Hassan’s Election?
Bellamy, from the centre-right Republicans party (LR), spearheaded steps to block Hassan’s election earlier this week, arguing previous comments she made conveying Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel as honest “disqualify her from ever speaking about human rights.”
How Did Hassan Respond to Bellamy’s Allegations
Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian lawyer and politician from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party has invariably denied the allegations. She expressed her comments to French outlet Le Crayon in November 2023, in which she reportedly stated Hamas was carrying out legitimate activities, which were taken out of context as a component of a political witch-hunt.
Her proposal to become third vice-chair of the human rights subcommittee was thwarted in Brussels, when committee associates abided by Bellamy’s call to postpone the appointment until September 5. Hassan replied 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 declared on Thursday he was suing Hassan for the post, which he says “directly targets” him in a way that “can only be decoded as a direct physical threat.” The President of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, is “conscious” and “looking into” the statements made by Hassan, a parliament spokesperson ratified.
What Support Has Hassan Received Within the EU Parliament?
Hassan has cracked back with a press statement published by her lawyers which blames Bellamy’s complaint as a “political stratagem.” It states that two legal complaints will be ensconced against the centre-right politician for public defamation and slander.
MEP Leïla Chaibi expressed Hassan has been “harassed, defamed, intimidated for months” and that efforts to exclude her stopped her from bringing the fight for peace and the rights of the Palestinian people to the EU Parliament. The Left group in the EU Parliament has also designated Hassan one of its coordinators in the human rights subcommittee, a position which carries little political force but comes as a signal of defiance against steps to block her candidature as vice-chair.
The party is the seventh largest in the parliament but was due to secure the third vice-chairmanship of the DROI subcommittee before centrist and right-leaning parties voted to block her.
The dispute increases tensions between France’s rival political factions even more. The country has slipped into political paralysis after the June ballot, in which no party succeeded a majority. The left-wing alliance has named Lucie Castets as its choice for PM, but President Macron has stated he will delay the formation of a new government until after the Paris Olympic Games.
