“Incredible violence” for Éric Woerth”, “unacceptable that we continue in a climate of verbal violence like this”, advances Aurore Bergé… After the multiplication of incidents during the session of the last days, in full consideration of the bill on the pension reform, the macronie denounces the maximum tension in the National Assembly.The phenomenon, however, is nothing new.
“It is true that heated debates are the hallmark of the chamber. But here we are getting to things that go much further. Now we are in a conscious strategy of calling for hatred”, denounces a close friend of Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament, with BFMTV.com.
“Really nothing weird”
Proof that the exchanges are very lively in the chamber and that the views of the deputies have evolved in this regard: in barely 3 months, the RN deputy Grégoire de Fournas and the LFI deputy Thomas Portes received the most serious sanction executed by the office of the National Assembly, that of the 15-day exclusion.
Until now, this sentence had only been pronounced once between 1958 and 2022, against communist deputy Maxime Gremetz in 2011.
Grégoire de Fournas had launched “let him go back to Africa” last November during a question from LFI deputy Carlos Martens Bilongo about the Ocean Viking, a ship carrying migrants. Thomas Portes posted a photo of himself during a demonstration by labor inspectors, with his foot on a football bearing the image of Olivier Dussopt.
“We can regret it, but anathemas, insults, even physical violence, are not really rare in the National Assembly,” comments Alain Vidalies, former delegate minister for Relations with Parliament at the start of François’s five-year term. Hollande.
Fatigue and night sessions
This former member of Jean-Marc Ayrault’s government was in the front row during the debates on marriage for all in 2013. The debates had been extremely tense after 24 sessions in the National Assembly, in a context of large street mobilizations against union for same-sex couples.
“I even had to get between a deputy and Christiane Taubira so they wouldn’t attack her. It was unimaginably violent. We were way beyond insults,” confesses Alain Vidalies again.
At the time, Christian Jacob, the president of the right-wing group, had called to “relativize” the fact, which had not been the subject of any sanction.
“We had talked a lot about the fatigue of the deputies, that we were sitting in the middle of the night. All this warms the spirits and makes a small gesture acquire enormous proportions, which seem totally incomprehensible. outside the hemicycle”, further deciphers Alain Vidalies.
A previous majority of “godillots”
The political context has also changed since the last legislative elections, with a government now facing a relative majority and a left, in particular La France insoumise, which has quadrupled the number of members of its group.
“It is possible that we have forgotten about this high-tension environment, because between 2017 and 2022 we had an environment of very chubby deputies,” advances the former president of the Assembly under Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Louis Debre.
“All the very symbolic bills always arouse a lot of passion. It is the game and sometimes it can even go to a very personal terrain ”, the former right-wing minister also advances.
Deputies “entrepreneurs of themselves”
The former tenant of the hanger, Claude Bartolone, insists on the massive presence of new deputies to understand the multiplication of the strokes of brilliance. 302 elected officials took their first steps in the National Assembly last June, mainly from the ranks of the RN and LFI.
“We now have a lot of deputies who are their own entrepreneurs, who seek to create a buzz, a clash. Play at the level of exchanges, which seem more invective and less argumentative to me ”, he advances.
“We exaggerate the outrage”
Claude Bartolone also points the finger at group presidents with less authority than before over deputies, resulting in “deputies who can sit on their colleague’s instructions”.
Some parliamentarians also recall the theatrical dimension of the passing of arms in the chamber that has gained importance with the news chains and channels.
“Sometimes we don’t get too shocked, but we exaggerate the outrage to make pretty pictures. Before, only the deputies found out about the tumult”, judges a veteran of Parliament.
No longer knowing how to “round the corners” at the soda bar
He also seems to lose the habit of smoothing things over after heated discussions in the National Assembly at the bar or in the corridors. With an example for Jean-Louis Debré: that of the arms pass between Christine Boutin and Lionel Jospin in 1998.
In full coexistence, the prime minister accused the right-wing elected official of being “marginal” and “outrageous in her comments.” Christine Boutin spoke the same week at the podium for more than 5 hours to express her opposition to the PACS reform then under debate in the National Assembly.
Given these statements, the deputy had burst into tears in front of the entire chamber before getting up to try to come and explain herself to the President of the Government, finally interrupted by the ushers of the session. After the incident, the right and left exchanged backstage over drinks, allowing things to cool down.
“The National Assembly’s snack bar is always too crowded to relax,” however, a renaissance deputy smiles. Without really managing to lower the tension a notch.
Source: BFM TV
