This election comes the day after a hectic day at the Palais Bourbon to form the office of the institution, but also for the executive, faced with the opening of an investigation for attempted rape after a woman filed a complaint. against the Minister of Solidarity Damien Abad.
What will Emmanuel Macron decide, back in France on Thursday evening after a long tunnel of international summits, and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne? The question of keeping Mr. Abad in government is more than ever asked, while a reshuffle is due to take place soon.
At the Assembly, the members of the eight standing committees meet from 10:30 a.m. to choose their presidents and offices.
That of Finance, the only one whose presidency has been reserved for the opposition since 2007, is by far the most scrutinized. Because it has a strategic role of examining budgets before their arrival in the hemicycle, or bills like the one on purchasing power expected in July.
It also offers access to information covered by tax secrecy, without however being able to reveal it.
Negotiations have been going well for ten days. They accelerated on Tuesday with the announcement of a common candidate from the left alliance Nupes (LFI, PS, EELV, PCF): the rebellious Eric Coquerel, now favorite.
Aged 63, the deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis was internally preferred to the socialist Valérie Rabault, forced to give up in the face of the leadership of the LFI, the most important left-wing force in the Assembly. She obtained in exchange a vice-presidency of the institution.
The election of Eric Coquerel, who already sat among the 70 or so members of the commission during the previous legislature, would be a trophy for LFI in this new Assembly.
“He is someone who worked on his files, he was very present, very diligent”, praises the socialist Christine Pires Beaune, his neighbor in committee during the previous mandate. But technically, “it is no offense to Eric Coquerel to say that Valérie Rabault, former general rapporteur for the budget, had a more important competence”.
– “Justice” –
At the RN, which is eyeing the post, we shout at the “maneuver” after this agreement between the four left groups Nupes, or 151 deputies in total.
The candidate of the far-right party Jean-Philippe Tanguy called again on Tuesday to “enforce the spirit of the rules” of the Assembly, by entrusting the presidency to the largest opposition group – the RN has 89 deputies against 75 rebellious.
The regulations simply state that the position must go to an elected member of an opposition group.
A graduate of Essec and Sciences Po, Jean-Philippe Tanguy insists on his seriousness in an attempt to discredit his rebellious rival and win votes at LR.
“Mr. Coquerel wants to make” the commission “a political weapon”. The role of the president “is not to be a vigilante or a political agent”, he says.
Elected officials LREM, LR or RN have raised the threat that Eric Coquerel will use in particular access to information covered by tax secrecy.
The interested party shouts at “fake news” and assures that he does not intend to “use this as a political weapon against personalities”.
At LR, we do not hide a certain embarrassment, some seem tempted to support Mr. Tanguy.
Right-wing elected officials are especially calling to vote for their candidate Véronique Louwagie, a “respected” personality, says her colleague Philippe Gosselin. He would even like the majority to take part in the ballot to avoid LFI and RN.
But the macronists assure that they will respect the “tradition” by abstaining, in order to let the oppositions organize themselves between them.
For the head of the other commissions, elected representatives of the majority have positioned themselves, in particular the LREM (now Renaissance) Sacha Houlié, candidate for the presidency of the Law Commission.
Unlike in 2017, parity should not be respected in these senior positions. But the macronists take shelter behind the election of Yaël Braun-Pivet as President of the Assembly, the first woman to perch, and Aurore Bergé as patroness of the LREM parliamentary group.
