When a law is discussed in the National Assembly… Your MP can suggest modifications: these are amendments. But you will see that their wording is sometimes identical from one elected official to another… One wonders if we might not have suggested the idea to them?
This month, on the menu of parliamentary discussions: the social security budget. No fewer than 6,000 amendments were added to the text.
Fortunately, the computer helped us put them through the mill. And here is what we noticed: many deputies from very different political backgrounds tabled the same amendments.
For example: what do these 8 elected officials from the Republicans, Europe Ecology, the Greens, the majority and the National Rally have in common? All have tabled an amendment to regulate telemedicine. A text that was sent to them by a large company in the sector, in other words a lobby.
“Not a photocopier job”
We went to see the deputies in question…in particular Sandrine Rousseau who has no memory of this amendment presented 2 weeks ago. In front of our camera, she seems to discover that she left this text: “Me? I have never filed an amendment from a private company! she defends herself. In any case, as far as I am concerned, the amendments that I table and that are sent to me are amendments for which I specify that they were sent to me, I will not compromise on that.”
We looked carefully… and there is no mention of the company… Sandrine Rousseau finally withdrew her amendment before discussing the text of the law.
Same discomfort with the Les Républicains MP for Meurthe-et-Moselle, Thibault Bazin, who preferred to give us his point of view by telephone: “It’s not photocopier work. It takes hours and nights to find out if things seem to be going in the right direction. I’m weighing… what the impact of such an amendment is.”
Pre-written amendments in MPs’ mailboxes
In the jargon of the National Assembly… These amendments are nicknamed “turnkey amendments”. They land in MPs’ mailboxes. We obtained one, sent by the national confederation of tobacconists. As an attachment, on the left, the text is already formatted in Word. We compared it to the one presented by the elected officials, to the right of the image. They are identical to the comma. The tobacco lobby even reminds MPs of the deadline for tabling the amendment.
In total, 14 deputies from all sides took up this text word for word to limit the increase in the price of cigarettes. We went to meet them. Most assume the method: “I very often work with tobacconistsexplains Valérie Bazin-Malgras, member of the Républicains de l’Aube. Bringing their expectations to Parliament is normal. I completely agree with the amendment they proposed so I am tabling it as is because it is very well written.”
Joëlle Mélin, member of the National Rally of Bouches-du-Rhône, also argues along these lines: “If we think it’s going in a direction that is good for the majority of French people, then we support it, that’s the role of deputies!”
According to former parliamentary collaborators, turnkey amendments would be a practice shared by all parties. Contacted, the ethics officer of the National Assembly did not wish to comment.
Among our sources:
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/16/amendements/1682/AN/1995
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/16/amendements/1682/AN/1283