The Constitutional Council reproaches “irregularities and maneuvers” to the elected official of the eighth district of the French from abroad, which notably includes Israel and Italy. He learned the news when he accompanied the Israeli Prime Minister.
by Louis Imbert (Jerusalem, correspondent)
It is 11:45 am, Friday February 3, and Meyer Habib will soon be deputy for the French Republic. The Constitutional Council has just announced that it invalidates its election in the legislative elections of June 2022, in the eighth district of the French from abroad, which covers in particular Israel and Italy.
The Council condemns “irregularities and maneuvers [which] were, in view of the gap of voice observed in the second round, likely to alter the sincerity of the ballot”. These methods have enabled the elected representative to the Les Républicains (LR) group to win with a tiny advance: barely 193 votes. His rival, Deborah Abisror-de Lieme, of the Renaissance presidential party, had filed a request to the council.
In a reception hall of the collector’s hotel, located a stone’s throw from the Monceau Park, Mr. Habib stood down on his phone. The dark face, the features drawn, a blue tie knotted on his white shirt (the colors of the Israeli flag), he sits in the place of honor, to the right of his friend Benyamin Netanyahu, facing sixty men from ‘French affairs. He does not say a word.
“If France abandons me, I do not exclude anything”
As with each visit, Meyer Habib Guide in Paris the Israeli Prime Minister as well as his wife, Sarah. He did not attend dinner at the Elysée the day before, during which Emmanuel Macron received Mr. Netanyahu, again in power since December 2022. But Meyer Habib activated in the morning of Friday through the corridors of their Hotel, with these businessmen and representatives of the Jewish community. He has constantly entered and out of the salons, made the presentations, the translation, the commentary. He is a bit factotum, a little intercessor with the undisputed chief of the Israeli right, who will pass the Shabbat to Paris. An intimate.
Ten days ago, Mr. Habib spent two hours with Mr. Netanyahu, in Israel. The two men have since talked a lot on the phone. Approaching the decision of the council, Habib told him around him that his friend had offered him, two years ago, to make him an ambassador of Israel to Paris. “If France abandons me, I do not exclude anything,” he said, emotional as always, suggesting that the post could be offered to him again. He has been taken since the ambassador Yaël German slammed the door in January. Appointed by the ephemeral Prime Minister Centrist Yaïr Lapid, close to Mr. Macron, she does not want to serve under the alliance that Mr. Netanyahu has with extreme right and religious parties.
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