In a hemicycle where the majority is only relative, a vote can be played with a few votes.
by and
Incessant comings and goings. The deputies of the Social Affairs Committee, who have just interrupted their work, at the end of the afternoon of Monday, October 10, has hastily cross the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes. Here they are again forced to complete the benches of the hemicycle to vote in the session the motion of rejection on the finance bill defended by the elected officials of rebellious France (LFI). After it was postponed, With 256 votes against 80 , elected officials set off in a hurry in their committee to use the study of the social security budget, examined in parallel.
For each camp, in an assembly where the majority is only relative, a victory or a defeat can be played with a few votes. So, priority is given to the massive presence in the hemicycle to the detriment of other missions devolved to parliamentarians, in committee or in constituency. Since the legislative elections, the 250 deputies of the presidential coalition – Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons – are aware that the slightest defeat can cause a political mini -crise. “Everyone understood that mobilization in the hemicycle is compulsory,” says the deputy (Renaissance) of the Bas-Rhin Charles Sitzenstuhl, who “warned in [his] district that [he] will be [t] in Paris Until Christmas “. Oppositions have taken up hope. “My assistants had to clean my agenda for the budget exam, reports the socialist deputy of Eure Philippe Brun. We must be in the assembly all the time, we can be decisive.”
Untenable in the long term
As this summer, during the examination of the connective budget, where an amendment granting an additional revaluation of 500 million euros for retreats of civil servants was adopted with five votes by opposition , taking Short the majority, little mobilized at the time of the vote. “The dynamics of a session can change at any time and it can derail all tactics,” analyzes the president (LFI) of the finance committee, Eric Coquerel. To catch up with this unexpected, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had then had to ask for a second deliberation, causing anger of the oppositions. “Democracy today can be played with three deputies who have come out in the toilet or who hang out at the refreshment bar”, quips the deputy (Renaissance) of the Hauts-de-Seine Pierre Cazeneuve.
Mobilization in the hemicycle poses an internal organizational problem for groups in the National Assembly. Each start of the week, Renaissance elected officials must fill out a digital form where they are summoned to specify “the reason for [their] absence” for future sessions. They can check among other things among the following proposals: “in committee”; “In a meeting in the National Assembly”; “In constituency” or “Sickness stop – with proof”. Without forgetting the messages that multiply on the Telegram and Whatsapp loops like this “TTU”, for “very very urgent”, as soon as the ringing announcing a ballot sounds in the grounds of the Palais-Bourbon. But this obligation of presence, and of justification in the event of absence, generates criticism in the group led by the deputy of the Yvelines Aurore Bergé, some seeing there a “infantilizing” system.
You have 40% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.