FranceLink

French Senate votes for Palestine recognition

The narrow vote in France's upper house follows a similar move by MPs in the National Assembly earlier this month.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

The upper house of France’s parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of recognition of a Palestinian state. The motion won a narrow majority in the Senate with the right-wing opposition split on the question, reports RFI.

The right recently won a majority in the Senate but the motion squeezed through by 153 to 146 thanks to the votes of some right-wing and centrist senators who broke ranks to back the Palestinian recognition call.

As in several other European countries that have passed similar motions recently, the vote is not binding on the government, leading the majority of the right to argue that it served no useful purpose.

“The Palestinians deserve better that a paper recognition,” commented UMP senator Christian Cambon, despite the fact that Palestinian leaders back such initiatives.

Read more of this report from RFI.