Just arrived, already tired. With a month to go before the term begins, many parliamentarians are concerned about the pace in the National Assembly. In question: a very sustained agenda in recent weeks added to the consequences of the physical exhaustion linked to the presidential and legislative elections. But the situation of a presidential coalition, with a relative majority, must continue over the next few months to put pressure on the deputies.
“We don’t stop. This week I finished at midnight, one in the morning, two in the morning… We are not complaining because we are here for the law to be approved and we are happy to ‘be there but yes, pull’, smiles the socialist deputy Arthur Report it to BFMTV.com.
“We cannot do a serious job in these conditions”
“We have not stopped moving. We have to settle down. To work well, we must be rested,” an elected official from Nupes told RMC.
On the deputies’ menu since their return to the chamber, a Covid-19 bill and a text against purchasing power examined in an emergency procedure. Thus it was presented in commission last Thursday to have to be returned just two days later. Upriver, the government had had 4 days of debate to achieve a vote on the text, a deadline that should be exceeded.
The words of Emmanuel Macron, who called in June to “legislate in another way” to reach compromises with the opposition, now seem very distant.
“We cannot work like this for another 5 years. The issue is not so much fatigue as the fact that they ask us to come to an agreement, to discuss with the opposition without understanding that it takes time. We can’t do serious work. under these conditions”, released, reassembled, a Modem deputy.
“We are not going to be 3 weeks in the purchasing power text”
It must be said that, since 2017, the executive has taken the habit of examining the texts in an accelerated procedure, ensuring a single reading in Parliament before their adoption. This legislative modality was the exception before the election of Emmanuel Macron.
In the ranks of the government we assume the method, highlighting an exceptional inflation that pushes us to act quickly, while remembering that the deputies should be officially on vacation on August 7.
“No one wants to limit parliamentary time. But we are examining the purchasing power bill very quickly because there is an urgency for the French. And then the text is 20 articles. We are not going to spend 2 or 3 weeks on that”, advances the entourage of Franck Riester, Delegate Minister for Relations with Parliament.
“Normal want to go fast”
It is that the government does not want to stand still in order to calmly finish the bill for the reform of the finance law. After a weak start to the second five years, the president also wants to make sure that he can go to the French to explain that his campaign commitments, such as the increase in retirement pensions, will be upheld.
“We are in the great classic. That we want to go quickly in an extraordinary session at the beginning of the five-year period is quite normal. It was already like that in 2017 and it is proof that we want to be effective.” and keep our promises,” says Renaissance MP (former LaRem) Constance Le Grip.
But beyond the first steps of this beginning of the legislature, it is likely that the new parliamentary pact will put the deputies of the presidential coalition to the test. Before a relative majority, all the votes count and the elected representatives will necessarily have to be more numerous to sit in the hemicycle. The presidential coalition was also defeated several times in the purchasing power law.
Deputies who will have to overmobilize
He also received a snub over the Covid-19 bill. 133 Renaissance deputies voted in favor of reestablishing the health pass, far from the 172 members of the group, amputated by 17 deputies who entered the government and who have not yet seen their substitutes enter the hemicycle.
“They understood at that moment that they would have to work and be very present. The groups will no longer be able to be half gauge”, analyzes the deputy RN Thomas Ménagé.
Problem: Parliamentarians cannot sit permanently. Quite often, in-session votes take place at the same time as committee work, leading to amusing sequences last week. While the finance committee was sitting, the Renaissance MPs had to multiply the back and forth to be able to vote and defend the Covid-19 bill.
The need to return to the constituency
Another problem: the need for Macronist deputies but also those from the opposition to be in the constituency.
“They sued us for disconnection in 2017. We are not going to do it again. So we will be in the field to do the after-sales service of what we voted for. It is up to the Government to adjust the agenda and not sit down 5 days out of 7″, advances a deputy from Horizons.
MPs should be able to test the executive’s new method from September, likely starting with the renewable energy bill before tackling the finance bill.
Source: BFM TV
