It is a life-size test for the cohesion of the new National Assembly. Even before there is any question of bills or amendments, the week which opens at the Palais-Bourbon poses a series of decisive deadlines in the establishment of the balance of power within the institution.
The 577 deputies must distribute the key positions, from the presidency of the National Assembly to the presidencies of the eight permanent committees, including the questure, the six vice-presidencies and the twelve secretarial positions that make up the office, the body that oversees the internal functioning of the institution.
The unprecedented composition of the National Assembly gives another scope to these internal appointments. Admittedly, it is dominated by the presidential coalition – Renaissance-ex-La République en Marche (LRM), MoDem and Horizons – but the latter, confined to the rank of relative majority, will probably be surrounded by seven opposition groups – the National Rally (RN), La France Insoumise (LFI), Les Républicains (LR), socialists, ecologists, communists, and a composite group of elected officials from overseas, Corsican and centrist.
The parliamentarians will have to elect Tuesday the president of the National Assembly, who, in addition to presiding over the sessions, will have to use his talents as a mediator to allow the oppositions as well as the majority to find their place in this new context. Three candidates are already in the running, deputies Annie Genevard (LR, Doubs), Sébastien Chesnu (RN, Nord) and Yael Braun-Pivet (LRM, Yvelines). The latter left the overseas ministry on Sundayafter a decree published the same day in Official newspaper.
Yaël Braun-Pivet, favorite for the perch
Majority candidate to succeed Richard Ferrand, defeated in the legislative elections in Finistère, the former president of the law commission has a good chance of winning in a secret ballot organized at the podium. If, after two rounds, the majority of the votes cast has not gone to a candidate, the relative majority is enough in the third round, enough to partly ensure the victory of Yaël Braun-Pivet. Especially since her person is unanimous both in the majority and among some of the LRs, convinced of the idea of electing for the first time in France a woman at the head of the National Assembly.
Also unprecedented, it is an elected novice of the RN, José Gonzales, 79, the dean of the Hemicycle, who will chair this inaugural session of the XVIe legislature.
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