The incidents caused by elected officials from La France insoumise exasperate part of the Nupes: behind a united facade, the left is still divided on the way forward to speed up the debates.
A new skid of insubordinate France which embarrasses Nupes: after Thomas Portes, excluded 15 days from the National Assembly for having set foot on a balloon bearing the image of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, another insubordinate deputy, Aurélien Saintoul , attacked the same minister on Monday, February 13, calling him in the hemicycle of “murderer”. He then apologized, but for the left, the damage is done.
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In addition to Elisabeth Borne who, like the unions, is calling for the end of “invective”, the left is exasperated by its own partners. A socialist deputy even left the hemicycle after this new incident. He confides to franceinfo no longer in power to “the excess of the rebellious”. Proof according to him that they “no longer have the right to make mistakes” : this immediate reaction of the bosses of the communist ecological and socialist groups who dissociated themselves in the hemicycle from their rebellious colleague. The annoyance was not expressed far from the microphones, but in the middle of the hemicycle, in particular by the communist André Chassaigne: “I feel hurt even humiliated”. “Here you have to defend with conviction, with passion, sometimes with anger what you believe in, but never with words that can hurt,” condemned the socialist Boris Vallaud, followed by the ecologist Cyrielle Chatelain: “That’s not an expression you can use. None of us are murderers here.”
“Nonsense”
Another socialist wants to dissociate these “a few active and counterproductive fanatics” other disobedients. This insult “It was objectively stupidity”, adds a member of the environmental group, “but Aurélien Saintoul apologized”, unlike Thomas Portes. And according to him, “If we take two centuries of Assembly records, we will find far worse things.”
However, the Nupes had expressly requested restraint from LFI on Monday morning before the resumption of the debates. But the message was obviously not received by everyone and was repeated Tuesday morning in an intergroup meeting. Aurélien Saintoul was sanctioned: a call to order with entry in the minutes. The MP will be deprived of a quarter of his allowance for a month. This is the second level of sanction on a scale of four.
Accelerate the debates
LFI, isolated, is reaching the limits of a parliamentary guerrilla strategy. In the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes, the Nupes came in large numbers to announce the withdrawal of a thousand amendments, with the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau, the Insoumis Manuel Bompard or the socialist Boris Vallaud. “We want to go on the alternative financing proposals. We have something else to offer than the tax on life”, argues the latter, concerned about “go on”. IDespite everything, there are still more than 14,000 amendments to be examined before Friday midnight.
A “removable” obstruction: socialists, ecologists, communists convinced the rebellious to withdraw amendments. The unions also, CGT, CFDT, ask that the debates take place. This is also the opinion of certain LFIs such as François Ruffin. “The choice to have thousands of amendments is useful, since it allows us to manage the calendar”he said.
Next step, article 7, the heart of the text, the one that sets the starting age at 64 years. The left wants to examine it. “Yes, yes, we all agree”, assures Sandrine Rousseauooptimist, Salle des Quatre-Colonnes, while the boss of the rebellious Manuel Bompard had already left. A sign that at LFI, the subject has not yet been decided between those who want to go as far as this article and the others who fear that this flagship measure will be voted on, at the risk of giving the government a victory.