France Surveillance of EU Lawmaker Rima Hassan Sparks Controversy

(MENAFN) France is embroiled in a deepening political controversy after an investigative report alleged that European Parliament member and pro-Palestine advocate Rima Hassan was placed under covert police surveillance for several months — an accusation that has rattled the country's political establishment and prompted urgent calls for government accountability.

The allegations were first surfaced by Mediapart, a prominent French investigative outlet, which reported that security authorities had been monitoring Hassan since January 2026. The surveillance purportedly encompassed real-time geolocating of her mobile phone alongside systematic tracking of her whereabouts and day-to-day movements.

The report landed like a political grenade in Paris, with opposition figures moving quickly to condemn what they characterised as a gross abuse of state power. Legislators decried the alleged operation as a "state scandal," a charge that underscores the intensity of the backlash reverberating through France's parliamentary corridors.

Among the most vocal critics was Antoine Leaument, a deputy from the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, who directed his fire squarely at Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, demanding an immediate and transparent explanation from the minister over the surveillance claims.

The episode has since crystallised into a much broader conversation about civil liberties in France, with detractors contending that the alleged monitoring of Hassan is far from an isolated incident — but rather part of a troubling pattern of disproportionate surveillance directed at politicians sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Hassan herself, a well-known champion of Palestinian rights on the European stage, has so far not made any public statement addressing the reported operation or its extent.

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