French lawmakers reject debate on petition against antisemitism bill

French lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a petition demanding the withdrawal of an antisemitism bill proposed by lawmaker Caroline Yadan, despite the text gathering more than 700,000 signatures. Members of the National Assembly’s law committee voted 30 to 21 to dismiss the petition, titled “No to the Yadan law,” which opposed broadening the scope of antisemitism-related offenses.

Debate deemed redundant

Supporters of the dismissal argued that a separate debate on the petition was unnecessary, as the bill itself is scheduled to be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday. Lawmaker Pierre Cazeneuve stated, according to LCP National Assembly: “It would be perfectly redundant to have a debate on a debate that is already going to take place.” Left-wing opposition lawmakers criticized the move, arguing that dismissing the petition disregarded the views of hundreds of thousands of signatories.

Left calls for protest

La France Insoumise called the decision “an insult” to the petition’s supporters and urged people to protest outside parliament on Thursday. Mathilde Panot described the decision as a “scandal” in a post on the US-based social media platform X. “I am referring the matter to the President of the National Assembly so that this petition leads to a debate in the chamber,” she said. “They will not extinguish this historic citizen mobilization.”