A bubbling cauldron. For their first days in the Hemicycle, the deputies raised the thermometer. Permanent hubbub, personal attacks, interruptions of sessions, clothing disputes and even a Nazi salute… The new National Assembly, without an absolute majority, came close to overheating on several occasions.
Annoyed by the tenor of the exchanges, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, denounced at the beginning of the week “a real diversion of the democratic debate”, getting annoyed with “endless debates” and the “pure political politics” of the opposition. Traditional back-to-school atmosphere or radical change in behavior at the Palais-Bourbon?
“Everything is done to transform the spans into trenches”
After Elisabeth Borne’s eventful general policy speech on July 6, parliamentarians launched the examination of two texts: the health bill and the one on purchasing power. A parliamentary marathon, sometimes extending until the end of the night, with its share of controversies and bird names. “You are the red jesters of King Macron”, launched the RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy to the rebellious last week. “Party of fachos! “, replied the elected LFI Aurélien Saintoul a little later. A small overview of the explosive exchanges which forced the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, to regularly interrupt the sessions.
“It’s constantly noisy, it never stops. You have to succeed in putting yourself in your bubble if you want to follow the debates correctly…”, breathes Philippe Gosselin, deputy Les Républicains. “At the start of a mandate, there are often new deputies who want to make a name for themselves, it’s fair game. But there, we have two opposition groups, LFI and sometimes the RN, which have made protest a political system. Everything is done to transform the spans into trenches”, sighs the one who has been elected from the Channel since 2007.
“In 2017, the right tried to haze us a little. But there, we reach levels of hatred, personal attacks and bad faith never seen during the previous five-year term”, abounds Erwann Balanant. “There are tensions between LFI and the RN, with us too. Myself, I groaned a little. This playground atmosphere doesn’t always make us very good, we don’t focus on the essentials, it’s a disaster…”, laments the MoDem deputy from Finistère. The presidential coalition is not to be outdone in provoking its opponents. Without an absolute majority, it could only be annoyed on several occasions by the amendments adopted by the opposition against the will of the government.
“Today, conflictuality is a strategy of opposition”
Of course, parliamentary unrest is not new, and the Palais-Bourbon enclosure has regularly been the scene of scandals. In 1999, in the midst of a debate on the PACS, UDF deputy Christine Boutin left the bays in tears, after an attack by the head of government Lionel Jospin. In June 2006, the socialist deputies came down the aisles to do the punch against Dominique de Villepin. The Prime Minister under pressure had just repeatedly denounced the “cowardice” of François Hollande. Seven years later, the long debates on marriage for all also inflamed the Hemicycle, and a start of a fight is prevented in extremis.
“A dozen opponents of the text, the most excited, had kept us in suspense for months, with excess, it’s true. But it was an extraordinary, passionate subject, which appealed to everyone’s intimate values, we cannot compare it to the current situation”, nuance Erwann Binet, then rapporteur for the text. The former PS MP continues:
“Today, conflictuality is organized on principle and as a tactic of opposition. Politics is reduced to the spectacle it gives on social networks. This excessive opposition may be effective in the short term, but I don’t think it does the cause we are defending any service”.
Long-term heated exchanges?
The rebellious, they assume this strategy of radical opposition. Strategy which, moreover, does not date from recent weeks. “Everything must be conflictualized”, repeats Jean-Luc Mélenchon for ten years. Having arrived in large numbers at the Assembly, the LFI elected officials are putting theory into practice. “Our mandate is a strong mandate, radically opposed to Emmanuel Macron’s project. You have to find a way to stick to that in the form. So yes, it will stir, to avoid the chloroform of the institutions. It may not be in the habits of MPs, but it is a way of renewing the way of doing politics. They will have to get used to it, ”warns William Martinet, LFI deputy for Yvelines. Controversies, hitherto limited to certain texts or certain moments of tension, could therefore become the norm in the coming months.
While waiting for the holidays, the walls of the Palais-Bourbon should still shake a little, since the parliamentary session will continue until August 7. A few days to hope to find somewhere, in the middle of the spans, “the spirit of dialogue and compromise” advocated by Elisabeth Borne at the beginning of July.