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Paris, June 26, 2025 (OLA NEWS) – This Wednesday evening, the French National Assembly held a session dedicated to the situation in the Middle East, in accordance with Article 50.1 of the Constitution. The meeting took place following the announcement of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, after several days of airstrikes.
The session began around 9:30 p.m. with a thirty-minute speech by the Prime Minister. Like Emmanuel Macron, François Bayrou condemned the recent Israeli-American operations in Iran, without explicitly denouncing them. He justified his position by pointing to the development of Iran’s nuclear program, which he described as “an existential threat to Israel and Europe,” and called for “building European power” in response.
His stance was criticized by La France Insoumise, the main left-wing opposition party. Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary group, immediately followed him at the podium to denounce “the Macronist government’s inability to condemn Israel’s aggression against Iran, which violates international law.” By contrast, the far-right Rassemblement National reaffirmed its unconditional support for Israel and the United States, while partially echoing the left’s criticisms of the president, whom Marine Le Pen accused of “weakening France.”
Despite these disagreements, the session unfolded in a relatively calm atmosphere, except for a twenty-minute interruption caused by thunderstorms that hit Paris. Firefighters were called in to lay absorbent mats due to minor water leaks. In a rare moment of unity, all parliamentary groups jointly called for the release of Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, both of whom have been detained for three years in Evin Prison in Tehran.
Reporting and pictures by Arnaud Vilette, Lucas Autréau, OLA NEWS Paris; editing by Alexandre Minguez.
