Abolition of the parliamentary reserve, ban on employing a member of his family…: five years ago to the day, on September 15, 2017, the law on the moralization of public life was promulgated to regain the confidence of the French, especially after the Penelope Fillon affair. Since then, MPs have been inventing their own rules for reconnecting with citizens.
Thus, in his office opposite the Palais-Bourbon, far from his constituency of Indre et Loire, the ecologist Charles Fournier wrote the first articles for his blog. “On this page, for example, I explain where we eat at the National Assembly, that there are two restaurants, a self-service: this can silence certain fantasies, he explains. And above all, it has an educational vocation. “You can quickly get into the habit, seeing everyone taking taxis for sometimes a kilometer, to do the same. We must resist this!”insists Charles Fournier.
He wants to associate the inhabitants with a constituency parliament, what he calls a civic tour: on the program, breakfast in the morning with employees, marauding and nightclub outings in the evening. He also copies questions to the government. “I had an hour and a half of questions that I now call QADs, questions to deputies, and it was exciting!”remembers the deputy.
“I hadn’t prepared anything, and I was asked questions about everything: both about my practical life and about the political background. This direct link, without filter, is frankly fundamental and I could not be elected without it.”
Charles Fournier, EELV MPat franceinfo
A horizontal mandate, therefore, to be as accessible as possible. This is also the philosophy of Les Républicains deputy Thibaut Bazin, who has just been re-elected. “In the old model, he says, you had to write a letter to your deputy, sometimes handwritten, to make contact. If some prefer to send me a message on Messenger, an email or come see me, I adapt! It’s not up to people to adapt to me, it’s up to me to adapt to people.”
His LR colleague in the Assembly, Antoine Vermorel-Marquès, even made the choice not to have a permanent position: “Our office is going to be mobile in a motorhome to help bring people closer and to have a very regular exchange with them, every day in a different town, to meet the inhabitants and which can also inspire my work. parliamentarian beyond lobbies and interest groups.”
Precisely, among these deputies who are trying to reconnect with the citizens, some want to deconstruct the image of the parliamentarian at the boot of the lobbies. This is the case of Erwan Balanant, from the MoDem, who sources all his texts.
“I never table amendments prepared by an interest representative, whoever they are. Every year, in the PLF, some are sent ready-made and you just have to click: I don’t not.”
Erwan Balanant, MoDem MPat franceinfo
And if a doubt remains on the funding of such and such a project, an ethics officer is available at the National Assembly to decide.
Five years after the law on the moralization of public life, deputies are trying to reconnect with citizens – report by Victoria Koussa
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