A French parliamentary inquiry has cancelled the summoning of populist leader Marine Le Pen and her niece Marion Maréchal after Le Pen promised to reveal the extent of far-left violence directed towards her.
The parliamentary inquiry committee on the fight against extreme right-wing groups in France, which opened at the request of the far-left France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France) party, initially invited the populist pair to speak on their alleged connections to ultra-right extremist groups, Le Figaro reports.
The Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader reacted to the summoning by saying, “Alas, we have much to say, but rather about the extreme left violence that we have been victims of all our lives.”
A day later, far-left Unsubmissive France politician Muriel Ressiguier, who serves as chairman of the committee, released a statement alongside Adrien Morenas, MP for Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche! (LREM/Republic on the Move), saying the inquiry no longer required the presence of Le Pen or Maréchal, blaming Le Figaro for releasing their names before the committee had officially summoned them.
“I, therefore, appeal seriously, calmly, and show responsibility so that this committee of inquiry does not end like a bad vaudeville to which I will not participate,” Mortenas said.
While the committee is chiefly concerned with ultra-right groups, Socialist Party MP Régis Juanico said the group was firstly concerned with links between the National Rally, Marion Maréchal’s new political school, and ultra-right groups, citing some overlap between the two and the Generation Identitaire (Generation Identity) movement.
Members of Generation Identitaire were recently arrested by French authorities over their participation in the Defend Europe mission in the Alps last year.
“Although officially the [National Rally] denies any link with them, we know that there are relations between elected officials and these militants of the ultra-right,” Ressiguier alleged.
The report is expected to end interviews and hearings on May 16th and present its findings on June 11th.
The inquiry is just the latest investigation into Le Pen and her party and follows raids against the party’s offices in Paris in 2017, shortly before the presidential election in which Le Pen came second to current president Emmanuel Macron.