Debate at the National Assembly in Paris
A general view shows the hemicycle as members of parliament attend a debate at the National Assembly in Paris, France, October 19, 2022. Reuters

Many French lawmakers called on Friday for tough sanctions against a far-right National Rally MP who shouted "go back to Africa!" as a Black legislator from the far left asked a question about immigration.

The remark by Gregoire de Fournas, a lawmaker from Marine Le Pen's opposition National Rally (RN), as left-wing MP Carlos Martens Bilongo was speaking, triggered an uproar on Thursday and brought the lower house of parliament to a halt.

The centrist government, the left and the mainstream right said the remark was an unacceptable racist slur. The far right argued de Fournas was not aiming the words at Martens Bilongo but rather at migrants currently stranded on an NGO boat in the Mediterranean, and that there was nothing wrong with that.

"I call for the most severe sanction against the person who was guilty of these racist remarks, which are incompatible with our country and the place where those words were said," Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of Martens Bilongo's France Unbowed party, told hundreds of protesters gathered in front of parliament.

Nineteen-year old law student Pedro Filipe, who was at the rally, said: "I am Black, such words have been targeted at me before..., and for me to hear them in the National Assembly, it's shocking. It must be the last time."

Le Pen and her party rejected accusations of racism. He "obviously spoke about the migrants transported in boats by the NGOs," Le Pen tweeted. "The controversy created by our political opponents...will not deceive the French."

Le Pen has made significant progress over the past few years in detoxifying her party's image and convincing voters it has moved towards the conservative mainstream, and she had urged her MPs to help continue this by projecting a more moderate image.

With 89 lawmakers, the RN is the second largest party in the National Assembly.

Many in the centrist government and on the left said de Fournas' comments and his party's reaction showed the "true face" of a party they said had not really changed.

"Mrs Le Pen has still not told this MP to leave, so she is complicit," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The assembly's governing body, which includes two RN members among six vice-presidents, was to meet in the afternoon to decide whether de Fournas would be sanctioned.

Possible sanctions, which parliament as a whole would have to confirm later in the day, include losing half his MP salary for a few weeks, and he could also be banned from parliament for 15 work days.

"I expect the toughest sentence," Martens Bilongo told RMC radio.

France