The French National Assembly has just been the scene of an anti-democratic coup, aimed at depriving the Rassemblement National (RN) of any management positions, despite it being the largest parliamentary group in terms of numbers. Ballot-box stuffing practices were observed, as well as insulting behaviour on the part of left-wing MPs, giving the institution a poor image.
On July 19th and 20th, MPs voted on the management positions at the Assembly, launching the new legislature elected on July 7th. None of the rules of conduct—usually in force at the National Assembly to ensure good relations between the parties—were respected.
Twenty-two positions were to be filled. In addition to the presidency of the Assembly, the Bureau of the Assembly is made up of 21 other members: six vice-presidents, three quaestors and 12 secretaries. The rule is that these posts should be distributed in a way that reflects the diversity of the political forces in the Assembly. Before the first round, the RN had made it known that its deputies would vote in a way that ensured that the Bureau reflected the political balance of the Palais-Bourbon. This would include voting for candidates from leftist party La France Insoumise, in order to ensure political diversity.
However, when it came to electing the vice presidents and then the quaestors, only RN candidates were eliminated, and Marine Le Pen’s party did not obtain any vice presidencies, unlike in the previous legislature. In the end, the RN was the only party that opted for pluralism—and it fell victim to the sectarianism of its opponents. At the end of the first phase of voting, the RN decided to withdraw from the rest of the election and not put forward a candidate for the posts of secretaries in order to denounce the democratic scandal at work.
The Left now has a majority in the Bureau of the Assembly, with 12 out of 22 posts. The Macronists themselves have been overtaken by the Left, which had its secretaries elected between midnight and 4 a.m on Friday, after the majority of MPs had left—following an old technique inherited from the Communist Party of yesteryear, which used late votes to place its men once the benches had been deserted by its opponents.
Being themselves victims of the offensive from the Left, the Macronist MPs aggravated the chaotic situation by not respecting good practice when it came to electing the chairman of the Finance Committee. The President’s party is not supposed to take part in this vote, which is normally reserved for the opposition, yet the Macronists put forward their own candidate and took part in the vote, contrary to custom.
Serious incidents were also reported during the two days of these elections on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th. The first round of the vice presidents’ election had to be cancelled due to ballot box stuffing: ten surplus envelopes were counted.
Finally, the far-left MPs presented a disastrous image of clan battles and partisanship. After the vote for the Presidency of the Assembly, they refused to shake hands with the youngest member of the Assembly, who traditionally stands by the ballot box. This time, it was the young RN MP Fabien Termet, who found himself the target of scorn and insults. The video of his treatment has gone viral on social media, reinforcing the feeling that the French National Assembly has become a battleground for rival gangs.
Marine Le Pen denounced this situation in an interview with Le Parisien: “Nothing has changed, with this feeling that our voters have not been heard.”
Beyond the understandable discontent of the RN, several specialists in constitutional law expressed their alarm at the situation in an interview with Le Figaro. Pierre Avril, Jean-Pierre Camby and Jean-Eric Schoettl consider the decision to ostracise the Rassemblement National from key positions in the Assembly to be contrary to the institutions. “The installation of a cordon sanitaire in the hemicycle is a mockery of representative democracy,” they said. They are concerned about the imbalance thus created and the resulting discredit for the institutions:
This quarantine of the so-called ‘far-right’ minority throws the patiently constructed notions of opposition, pluralism of opinion, and the rights of political groups to the winds. What is the point of a National Assembly whose structure is no longer representative of the diversity of opinions and is no longer organised according to the numerical weight of each group?
The XVIIth legislature of the Fifth Republic has thus opened with a distressing spectacle that suggests the French political climate will worsen quickly.
Some observers of French political life are asking themselves the following question: If the RN can participate in the democratic game, why should it be blocked to such an unhealthy degree and prevented from properly exercising its representative mandate? Would the Left not be more consistent in its logic by banning the party outright? But then the denial of democracy would be all the more blatant.
The current situation provides fodder for the little theatre of ‘anti-fascism’ and lends lustre to the good conscience of a few mediocre people. The question now is: Where is the breaking point in this dangerous game?
French Assembly: A Denial of Democracy As RN Blocked From Key Roles
An official adjusts the urn containing ballots after the first round to elect lower house’ President at the France’s National Assembly in Paris on July 18, 2024.
Photo: Bertrand GUAY / AFP
The French National Assembly has just been the scene of an anti-democratic coup, aimed at depriving the Rassemblement National (RN) of any management positions, despite it being the largest parliamentary group in terms of numbers. Ballot-box stuffing practices were observed, as well as insulting behaviour on the part of left-wing MPs, giving the institution a poor image.
On July 19th and 20th, MPs voted on the management positions at the Assembly, launching the new legislature elected on July 7th. None of the rules of conduct—usually in force at the National Assembly to ensure good relations between the parties—were respected.
Twenty-two positions were to be filled. In addition to the presidency of the Assembly, the Bureau of the Assembly is made up of 21 other members: six vice-presidents, three quaestors and 12 secretaries. The rule is that these posts should be distributed in a way that reflects the diversity of the political forces in the Assembly. Before the first round, the RN had made it known that its deputies would vote in a way that ensured that the Bureau reflected the political balance of the Palais-Bourbon. This would include voting for candidates from leftist party La France Insoumise, in order to ensure political diversity.
However, when it came to electing the vice presidents and then the quaestors, only RN candidates were eliminated, and Marine Le Pen’s party did not obtain any vice presidencies, unlike in the previous legislature. In the end, the RN was the only party that opted for pluralism—and it fell victim to the sectarianism of its opponents. At the end of the first phase of voting, the RN decided to withdraw from the rest of the election and not put forward a candidate for the posts of secretaries in order to denounce the democratic scandal at work.
The Left now has a majority in the Bureau of the Assembly, with 12 out of 22 posts. The Macronists themselves have been overtaken by the Left, which had its secretaries elected between midnight and 4 a.m on Friday, after the majority of MPs had left—following an old technique inherited from the Communist Party of yesteryear, which used late votes to place its men once the benches had been deserted by its opponents.
Being themselves victims of the offensive from the Left, the Macronist MPs aggravated the chaotic situation by not respecting good practice when it came to electing the chairman of the Finance Committee. The President’s party is not supposed to take part in this vote, which is normally reserved for the opposition, yet the Macronists put forward their own candidate and took part in the vote, contrary to custom.
Serious incidents were also reported during the two days of these elections on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th. The first round of the vice presidents’ election had to be cancelled due to ballot box stuffing: ten surplus envelopes were counted.
Finally, the far-left MPs presented a disastrous image of clan battles and partisanship. After the vote for the Presidency of the Assembly, they refused to shake hands with the youngest member of the Assembly, who traditionally stands by the ballot box. This time, it was the young RN MP Fabien Termet, who found himself the target of scorn and insults. The video of his treatment has gone viral on social media, reinforcing the feeling that the French National Assembly has become a battleground for rival gangs.
Marine Le Pen denounced this situation in an interview with Le Parisien: “Nothing has changed, with this feeling that our voters have not been heard.”
Beyond the understandable discontent of the RN, several specialists in constitutional law expressed their alarm at the situation in an interview with Le Figaro. Pierre Avril, Jean-Pierre Camby and Jean-Eric Schoettl consider the decision to ostracise the Rassemblement National from key positions in the Assembly to be contrary to the institutions. “The installation of a cordon sanitaire in the hemicycle is a mockery of representative democracy,” they said. They are concerned about the imbalance thus created and the resulting discredit for the institutions:
The XVIIth legislature of the Fifth Republic has thus opened with a distressing spectacle that suggests the French political climate will worsen quickly.
Some observers of French political life are asking themselves the following question: If the RN can participate in the democratic game, why should it be blocked to such an unhealthy degree and prevented from properly exercising its representative mandate? Would the Left not be more consistent in its logic by banning the party outright? But then the denial of democracy would be all the more blatant.
The current situation provides fodder for the little theatre of ‘anti-fascism’ and lends lustre to the good conscience of a few mediocre people. The question now is: Where is the breaking point in this dangerous game?
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