Sébastien Delogu, deputy for La France insoumise (LFI), has already stood out for his bold and often controversial actions in the National Assembly. This Tuesday, May 28, 2024, he brandished a Palestinian flag in the middle of a question session with the government, a gesture which led to an interruption of the session by President Yaël Braun-Pivet.
This action resulted in the violation of article 9 of the General Instruction of the Bureau, which prohibits deputies from brandishing various objects during sessions. However, the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, based the sanction on articles 70, paragraphs two and five, which allow the sanctioning of a deputy disrupting order or causing a tumultuous scene. Sébastien Delogu was thus excluded for 15 days.
This is not the first time that Sébastien Delogu has been talked about. In March 2023, he threatened to resign if the pension reform was adopted. More recently, he filmed himself trampling on an election leaflet on Instagram, which earned him harsh criticism.
In November 2023, he shouted “racist” in the Assembly in response to comments by Michèle Tabarot, LR deputy, which cost him 25% of his monthly allowance.
Since March 2023, two complaints have been filed against Sébastien Delogu for violence during the blockade of a Marseille high school, as part of the social movement against pension reform. The complainants claim to have received kicks from the LFI deputy. Accusations firmly denied by the accused who claims to have intervened to “protect the physical integrity of the high school students”, affirms our colleagues from La Montagne. The trial will take place on June 25, 2024
Behind these events around Sébastien Delogu, what do we know about his story?
Born on June 8, 1987 in Marseille, Sébastien Delogu became a deputy for the 7th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône in 2022.
First a salesman, security agent then a taxi driver, he became a Marseille delegate in the Taxi de France assembly. In his fight against VTCs, he met Danielle Simonnet, at the time coordinator of LFI. During Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s legislative campaign in 2017, in Marseille, she introduced him to the boss of LFI.
Sébastien Delogu has long been presented as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s personal driver. “But he was never paid for that,” assured Lise Maillard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s chief of staff, to 20 Minutes. According to her: “He insisted on being an activist without being paid, forgetting to look for work, with generosity and selfless sincerity.”
Sébastien Delogu grew up in the northern districts of Marseille. Coming from a modest background with a father who was a taxi driver, and a mother who was a saleswoman according to France 3 or a seamstress according to 20 minutes.
After a childhood in the Cité Consolat in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille, he trained in sales in a vocational high school, which allowed him to obtain the patent as a free candidate. He claims to have experienced complicated moments with 20 minutes: “I have known the misery of the world, and see it around me”. Ten months before his election, he was still sleeping in his car due to lack of accommodation. “I experienced a monumental ordeal, and now it’s over,” he explained to our colleagues.