France is cold, the deputies too. Given the drop in temperatures, parliamentarians use system D in the National Assembly, a true thermal sieve.
“Me, I’m in the attic and in my office, the temperature rarely exceeds 16.5°C. I’m not cold, but still… I use a heating blanket which is very effective,” says a socialist elected official in BFMTV. .com.
“Two Down Jackets”
The National Assembly, built in 1722, has many very large windows, rarely double-glazed. “Replacing them with double glazing represents an exorbitant cost,” acknowledges a member of the National Assembly’s real estate affairs department.
With the exception of the heavily damaged glass roof of the hemicycle, which benefited from extensive work in the fall of 2021, few buildings, even the most modern ones, have met energy insulation standards.
However, the institution is trying to enforce the government-mandated 19°C. With one object: a thermometer now installed in the office of each MP.
“It’s a very good idea. But even with the heating on full blast, I rarely get above 18°C. boiling tea all day,” says an LR MP considered a veteran in Parliament.
“Ice Erasers”
The administration also does not hesitate to take liberties with the sanitary regulations in an attempt to heat the atmosphere. Although the chamber doors had always been open since Covid-19 to renew the air, they are now closed again and the large velvet curtains serve to insulate them well.
“The big problem with this house is the icy drafts. In the room of the Four Columns, as soon as you open the door leading to the gardens, you lose a few degrees. We have never put an airlock, it is a pity ”, he also advances. Socialist Arthur Delaporte.
At the Palais-Bourbon, we recall that Yaël Braun-Pivet inaugurated at the beginning of August a working group on “sustainable development” within the institution, charged with working on “energy sobriety” measures and for a few months from a “green development”. transition plan.
Cold in the middle of a vote on renewable energy
The office, the highest body of the Assembly, also registered this Wednesday 2.3 million euros in additional credits for 2022 in order to deal in particular with the “effects of inflation on energy expenditure” of the institution.
“We are a thermal sieve like any other in Paris,” replies LR Antoine Vermorel-Marques deputy.
Most departments are in the same boat. Often installed in old mansions, they often cannot be properly heated in the state.
“The administration must be exemplary. We cannot ask the French to make an effort to insulate their houses and for our part not to do the necessary work. We are still in the process of voting on a text on renewable energy, which is very paradoxical.” , remarks this elected representative of the Loire.
“You are not welcome to complain”
On the benches of the Renaissance, it’s not about complaining. It must be said that the executive walks on a thread. After warning about possible power outages at the beginning of December, the ministers were severely questioned by Emmanuel Macron.
“The scenarios of fear are no,” decided the president, on a trip to Albania, assuring that if “everyone at our level makes an effort”, “there is no reason to have a scenario that goes to darker days.”
Suffice it to say that the elected representatives of the presidential majority are keeping a low profile in this area. “I respect 19°C, so I wear a winter outfit. It would be frankly inappropriate to complain when you see what is happening in Ukraine,” said Hadrien Ghomi MP.
The parliamentarian follows the example above: Élisabeth Borne, Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Bruno Le Maire have been wearing a turtleneck and a puffer jacket since September.
Source: BFM TV
