Invective, polemics, heated debates… It’s hard to get bored with the new composition of the National Assembly. And rightly so: the June legislative elections brought their share of surprises between the entry into force of the deputies of the National Group and the failure of the presidential bench to obtain an absolute majority.
Six months after the start of the 16th legislature, BFMTV.com reviews ten key sequences.
• June 28th. The dean of the Assembly evokes his nostalgia for French Algeria
First day and already controversial. As dean of the National Assembly, José González, 79, opens the first session of the 16th legislature on June 28, as tradition dictates. From the perch, the National Rally (RN) deputy evokes his attachment to French Algeria, describing himself as “the son of a France from another part, uprooted from his homeland and sent to the shores de Provence in 1962”.
“I am a man who has seen his soul wounded forever,” said the Oran native.
Moved, this close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen stops. The applause resounds in the chamber. In the benches of the majority and of the left, these declarations cause clamor. “The demonization of the RN ended from the first session”, affirms the environmentalist deputy Sandrine Rousseau at the exit of the chamber. For his part, José González gives a cape: the pied-noir assures “he does not know” if the OAS committed crimes during the Algerian war.
• July 26. LFI deputies arrive with a tie
A strong image. On July 26, several elected officials from La France insoumise, including Mathilde Panot and Clémentine Autain, entered the Palais Bourbon wearing ties. A response to Éric Ciotti who claims the mandatory use of this garment in the chamber, observing a “loosening of clothing” since the beginning of the new legislature.
Given this, the parliamentarians of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party want to denounce the “sexism” and “class contempt” that the compulsory use of this accessory would induce. At the beginning of November, the office of the National Assembly decides: the jacket becomes mandatory while the tie, which has not been since 2017, is recommended.
• 4th of October. Sandrine Rousseau’s feminist gesture
For the first questions to the government since the summer holidays, the chamber is particularly agitated. Aurore Bergé, patron saint of the deputies of the majority, implicitly attacks the rebels for their management of the Adrien Quatennens case, who a few days earlier admitted to having slapped his wife.
The elected representative of Yvelines evokes in particular “those who speak of their ‘affection’ for a man who beats his wife”, alluding to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had praised the “courage” and “dignity” of the deputy del norte In response to these comments, Sandrine Rousseau rose from her seat and made the sign of the inverted uterus, a feminist symbol.
The ecologist deputy did not appreciate Aurore Bergé’s question on domestic violence, while Damien Abad continues to sit at the Palais-Bourbon as a deputy attached to the Renaissance group. The short-lived Minister of Solidarity is the subject of four counts of rape and attempted rape.
• October 18. The anger of Éric Dupond-Moretti after the murder of Lola
In mid-October, after the murder of the young Lola in Paris, the extreme right and part of the right denounced the “laxness” of the government’s “immigration policy”, despite the fact that the main suspect in this case was subject to to the obligation to leave. the territory (OQTF).
During the questions to the government on October 18, the deputy LR Éric Pauget rebuked the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, judging the latter’s ministry as “responsible for this tragedy”.
Booed by part of the chamber, the Keeper of the Seals responds and accuses his opponents of “playing petty politics, petty poloche.” “Using the coffin of a twelve-year-old girl as a step is used is a shame, sir,” asserted the former lawyer, applauded by the left. Then Éric Dupond-Moretti turns to the far-right camps and declares:
“And I think the best is yet to come, because you are still at the appointment of the misfortune that you have been making your honey for years.”
• October 26th. A member of Parliament reads his speech in Braille
In the chamber, José Beaurain made a notable speech at the end of October. Read the text of him in Braille. The far-right elected official became the first blind MP to enter the Palais Bourbon last June. He has congenital glaucoma which caused him to lose his sight in 2008.
José Beaurain dedicates his words to the aid for shared housing (AVP), created in 2021 to “support the development of housing for the elderly and people with disabilities”.
• October 26th. The tears of Carolina Fiat
In tears in the hemicycle. Still at the end of October, Caroline Fiat could not contain her excitement after the approval of her amendment, which establishes “a minimum proportion of supervision of residents by nursing staff”, during the first reading examination of the bill to the financing of social security. (PLFSS).
“I am very moved by this victory”, reacts following the rebel deputy, known for having been the first caretaker elected to the National Assembly in 2017.
• November 3. “Go Back to Africa”
The sequence sparked a lively controversy. During questions to the government on November 3, LFI deputy Carlos Martens Bilongo questions the executive about migrants in the Mediterranean. The parliamentarian is interrupted by his counterpart from the National Rally, Grégoire de Fournas.
“Let him go back to Africa”, launches the ultra-right elect, according to the version withheld in the report of the National Assembly.
These declarations unleash an outcry in the benches of the left and the majority. “Outside”, launch several deputies from both camps. The session is adjourned. Grégoire de Fournas assures for his part that he spoke in the plural, thus evoking the “ship and its migrants”, and not his colleague Carlos Martens Bilonguo.
He ultimately received the most severe sanction from the office of the National Assembly: he is excluded from the next 15 days of session and is deprived of half of his parliamentary allowance for two months.
• November 24. The left and the majority vote together for abortion
LFI and Renaissance hand in hand. On November 24, deputies from the left and from the presidential camp jointly voted on an insubordination bill that seeks to include the right to abortion in the Constitution. A novelty for Emmanuel Macron’s camp. That he had judged the rebels on the “side of disorder and cynicism”, while his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, had excluded them from the “republican arch” on which he intended to build majorities.
On abortion, the two formations had previously participated in a sprint race, and each group wanted to put a similar text on the agenda. Therefore, it is difficult not to vote for the LFI text. After this rare moment of consensus between the left and the majority, a standing ovation resounded in the chamber.
• November 24. “You’re going to shut up”
Same day, different atmosphere. During this session reserved for the examination of LFI bills, the majority plays parliamentary obstruction when a text on the reinsertion of unvaccinated caregivers is debated. In return, Olivier Serva accuses Emmanuel Macron’s camp of “obstructive pettiness” consisting of preventing the text from coming to an end.
The deputy Libertad, Independientes, Overseas and Territories (Liot), had left the macronista group during the previous term, after having unsuccessfully demanded the return of unvaccinated hospital caregivers. Interrupted several times during her speech, she ended up getting angry and launched a “you’re going to shut up” at the Renaissance deputy Sylvain Maillard.
On BFMTV, the elected representative of Guadalupe defended himself by speaking of “a reflection of language”.
• December 11. Elisabeth Borne’s laugh during her ninth 49.3
On December 11, to approve the budget without the vote of the deputies, Elisabeth Borne extracted 49.3 for the ninth time in a few weeks. “Why are you so afraid of the debate?” Launches the Prime Minister at the opposition despite the fact that she has just interrupted the exchanges on this text using the cleaver article.
Surprised to say the least by this question, the opposition deputies jeered and stood up, clapping ironically. Next, Élisabeth Borne laughs out loud for a few seconds. The sequence gives grist to her opponents.
“It is a shame without a name”, criticizes for example the deputy of the RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy, considering that the head of Matignon “openly mocks the National Assembly”.
Source: BFM TV
