Yaël Braun-Pivet decided to issue a call to order to the deputy La France insoumise. Ugo Bernalicis will also see his parliamentary allowance reduced by 25% for one month. The office of the National Assembly could go further in the coming days.
The sanction fell. After causing tensions in the law committee this Thursday evening, Ugo Bernalicis was imposed two sanctions by the President of the National Assembly.
The rebellious deputy is subjected to a call to order with entry in the minutes. Ugo Bernalicis will also see his parliamentary allowance cut by 25% for one month. Concretely, the elected official who usually receives 7,605 euros gross per month will receive 5,703 euros at the end of December.
A request to suspend the work of the commission refused
Thursday evening, at the end of the day, Ugo Bernalicis requested a suspension of the session in the full law committee which was then working on the immigration bill to allow him to go to the hemicycle.
The reason: the parliamentary niche of La France insoumise – a day during which the group can present its own texts to the Assembly – takes place at the same time.
The request was then refused by Sacha Houlié, the president of the Law Commission. If the deputies are indeed debating in the hemicycle, they are not voting.
“You will have to use physical force if you want to fire me”
Parliamentary custom dictates that the session is suspended during votes and not before – regularly forcing parliamentarians who want to defend amendments to run from the committee to the hemicycle.
“You will have to use physical force if you want to kick me out of this committee! I will stay there as long as it is not suspended,” says Ugo Bernalicis, who does not want to miss the exchanges in the hemicycle or the discussions with Gérald Darmanin , then present in committee.
“Physical contact” but “no violence”
The rebellious MP further criticizes Sacha Houlié for not having, according to him, enforced a commitment made at the conference of presidents of the Assembly, to interrupt the committees, when a text from the committee concerned is examined in the hemicycle.
According to information from Figaro, Ugo Bernalicis then allegedly prevented his colleague from the Liot group, Christophe Naegelen, from presenting his amendment in committee. Which would have grabbed his arm, before a “very clear physical altercation” took place, according to an elected official interviewed by the daily. There was “physical contact”, but “no violence”, said Renaissance MP Caroline Abadie to AFP.
Towards possible other sanctions
Stating that he himself had raised a calendar problem, Sacha Houlié then denounced “an incredible mess” and indicated that he would refer the matter to the presidency of the Assembly for “serious disturbances”. “I too am going to ask for sanctions,” reacted Ugo Bernalicis, according to AFP.
The president of the law committee thanked Yaël Braun-Pivet for “this immediate sanction” and referred to the next office of the National Assembly.
This sort of board of directors of the Palais-Bourbon must now decide on its fate on December 13. The rebellious MP could face heavier sanctions. For example, he could be deprived of half his parliamentary allowance for a month and result in a ban on coming to Parliament for two weeks.
This sanction was pronounced in November 2022 against the National Rally deputy Grégoire de Fournas, after his racist remarks – “Let him go back to Africa” - made towards his rebellious parliamentary colleague Carlos Martens Bilonguo.