Despite the left-wing coalition claiming ‘victory’ in the French legislative elections on July 7th, the Rassemblement National (RN) remains, in absolute figures, the leading party in the National Assembly. The aim of RN’s opponents—both the left-wing coalition and Emmanuel Macron’s party—is now to prevent it from obtaining key positions in the Assembly at all costs.
While the name of the next Prime Minister is still not known, another issue is preoccupying the French political class: who will sit in the various strategic positions in the National Assembly, such as the presidency, the vice-presidencies, the questure (financial officers in charge of payments to deputies and senators), or the finance committee? These offices are highly coveted and are normally divided between the different parties to reflect the diversity of the parties chosen by the electorate to sit in the Assembly.
But for the new legislature that is beginning, the left and centre, which on paper agree on the principle of diversity, want to implement a cordon sanitaire so that the RN is systematically excluded from management positions.
Marine Le Pen voiced her disapproval of the agreement being drawn up against her party: “What has become of our democracy when we try to prevent the opposition from having responsibilities in the Assembly?” Her ally, Éric Ciotti, who heads the section of the Les Républicains party that has entered into an alliance with the RN and who was quaestor in his previous term of office, was equally indignant: “There is a tradition in this House that all the groups should be represented to take up positions of responsibility. If this move were to succeed, it would be a ‘combinazione’ [dubious arrangement between parties] that would somehow sideline 11 million French people.”
In the centre and centre-right, the strategy of exclusion divides the ranks. François-Xavier Ceccoli, an MP belonging to the anti-RN Republicans, now united in a new group called the Republican Right, feels concerned: “Each political family has the right to its own representation. Today, to say that the MPs themselves are blocking the Republican vote seems pretty dangerous.” Former allies of Emmanuel Macron are also critical of the process.
Pending the appointment of a new prime minister, the battle is raging for each of the three blocs to impose their candidates. The left-wing coalition put forward André Chassaigne, a communist, for the post of president of the National Assembly, while the Macronist camp wanted to reappoint the previous president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, whose record is nevertheless far from unanimously approved of. A consensus candidate could have been the highly respected Conservative MP Charles de Courson, who comes from a small independent political group and distinguished himself during the debates on pension reform. The President of the National Assembly is the fourth most important state figure under the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
Yaël Braun-Pivet was eventually re-elected after 3 rounds, at a relative majority—without any enthusiasm from the majority of MPs who ended up carrying on with the same figure, for want of anything better, just as this new legislature is likely to be.
Another particularly coveted post is that of chairman of the finance committee, which traditionally falls to the opposition. The RN is claiming the position as the largest opposition party in terms of numbers (143 MPs with its allies). During the previous legislature, it was the left-wing La France Insoumise party that managed to win back this strategic post, despite protests from the RN, which already had the largest group on its own and at the time denounced an ‘illegitimate’ chairmanship. The chair of the Finance Committee will be the referee of the budget negotiations in the autumn. The election is due to take place on Saturday, July 20th. The blocking of any RN candidates for positions of responsibility in the Assembly could only increase the discontent of the millions of voters who have put their trust in the party of the national Right to represent them.
