After three days of elections, who got what?

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The National Assembly, July 18, 2024. (RICHARD BRUNEL / MAXPPP)

Between Thursday and Saturday, several strategic positions in the National Assembly were awarded after intense negotiations and votes between deputies. The left bloc and the central bloc emerged strengthened.

The doors of the National Assembly closed on Saturday evening. No extraordinary session since the government, which only manages current affairs, does not include any text on the agenda. It is the end of three days of votes and negotiations between deputies for strategic positions at the Palais-Bourbon. And in this game, two entities come out stronger: the central bloc and the left bloc.

The Macronists have secured the essentials, thanks to the alliance concluded between Gabriel Attal and Laurent Wauquiez of the Republican Right, the addition of their deputies allowing them to have a relative majority. Result: Yaël Braun-Pivet remains president of the Assembly, the Macronists also have a vice-presidency, a quaestor position and above all six committee presidencies out of eight. An alliance that the Republicans have made them pay a high price for: they obtain two vice-president positions, a quaestorship, and the rapporteur of the Social Security budget.

The right was also supposed to obtain the presidency of the Finance Committee, but that was without counting on the small centrist group Liot, which brought the few votes that were missing for the election of the rebellious Éric Coquerel to this strategic post. The New Popular Front has generally managed to hold its own, with another committee presidency, Cultural Affairs, for a socialist.

But above all, the NFP made its good deal on the night of Friday to Saturday by obtaining not only two positions of vice-president of the Assembly, a quaestorship, but also nine secretarial positions out of the 12 at stake. The left bloc benefited in particular from the boycott of the RN which left the hemicycle out of annoyance, but also from the gradual departure of the Macronist troops after midnight, the election having ended at 4 a.m. Upon arrival, the left holds the majority (12 of the 22 places) of what is called the bureau, which decides on the organization of the work of the Assembly but also on disciplinary sanctions.

As for the RN, it comes out almost empty-handed. No office position, no thematic committee presidency, only a few commission vice-president positions. Marine Le Pen denounces the “shenanigans” from the presidential camp, and a denial of democracy on the part of the left. “The French will judge”, repeat the far-right deputies, who are already anticipating a new dissolution in a year.

But didn’t the RN organize its failure? Left-wing elected officials are convinced of this: “They self-scuttled”especially when they voted for La France Insoumise candidates for vice-president.


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