She is now the fourth character in the state. Yaël Braun-Pivet was appointed, Tuesday, June 28, to the presidency of the National Assembly. Elected in the second round by a vote of the deputies by 242 votes, thea member of the presidential majority becomes the 15th president of the hemicycle under the Fifth Republic and especially the first woman to hold this position.
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The Assembly “has the face of France” and “the French enjoin us to work together, to debate rather than fight”, said the 51-year-old elected official during her first speech from the perch. From his debut in politics five years ago to his brief stint at the Ministry of Overseas France, franceinfo summarizes his career for you.
A lawyer who entered politics in 2017
Originally from Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Yaël Braun-Pivet is a former criminal lawyer. She worked for several years alongside criminal lawyer Hervé Témime, a powerful lawyer who notably represented Bernard Tapie, before setting up her own firm in Hauts-de-Seine. A “vocation” that she put on hiatus in the early 2000s to follow her husband, an executive at L’Oréal, to Taiwan, Japan and then Portugal, she says on her site. In Tokyo, she held the position of treasurer of the local branch of the Socialist Party, reports The world (article subscribers).
Back in France in 2012, this mother of five children joined the Restos du Cœur by offering free legal consultations. In 2016, after having “always voted PS”, Yaël Braun-Pivet joined En Marche. A novice in politics, she was elected deputy the following year in the 5th constituency of Yvelines. She took the seat from the outgoing right-wing deputy Jacques Myard, on the benches of the Palais-Bourbon since 1993.
President of the powerful law commission
In 2017, the new deputy was chosen to chair the law commission. His appointment breaks with the tradition of appointing an experienced person to this post. His first steps in the National Assembly earned him a trial “in amateurism” from the opposition, but also from elected representatives of the majority. A few months after her arrival at the Palais-Bourbon, she tackles her macronist colleagues. “We have a sleeping group, which does not know how to step up, which is wallowing”she blurts out in the law commission, without paying attention to her microphone that remained open.
Yaël Braun-Pivet prints then its brand with collective field visits, in particular in about thirty penitentiary establishments. Renowned determined, she seeks the perch in 2018 on behalf of the “renewal”, but finally withdrew his candidacy in favor of that of Richard Ferrand. “It was too early in my political career. I was not armed enough”, she confides in Figaro (article subscribers).
Yaël Braun-Pivet is also committed to Olivier Falorni’s bill on end of life. It also sought to move forward in the renovation of democratic life. Her rejection in 2018 of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the preamble to the Constitution has caught up with her in recent days, after the questioning of the right to abortion in the United States. “There is no need to brandish fears” in France, she assured then.
criticized during the commission of inquiry into the Benalla affair
The first mandate of the deputy of Yvelines is also marked by the commission of inquiry into the Benalla affair, in the summer of 2018. Co-rapporteur of the commission, Yaël Braun-Pivet refuses to hear the secretary general of the presidency of the Republic, Alexis Kohler. Several deputies accuse him of “protect” the Elysee. “Does the Elysée want to torpedo the work of our commission? I believe it, I fear it”, then launched Guillaume Larrivé, co-rapporteur for Les Républicains. The deputy of rebellious France Alexis Corbière even describes Yaël Braun-Pivet as “Benalla of the National Assembly”.
“We are under no one’s orders”, replies the elected macronist. Buthe commission of inquiry ends up exploding after the withdrawal of the opposition. Target of anti-Semitic threats and sexist insults on social networks, Yaël Braun-Pivet believes a few months after his “position was untenable from the start”. In January 2019, she rejects any request to reopen the commission investigation, despite new revelations about the case.
Short-lived Overseas Minister
In May, after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, she was appointed Minister of Overseas, “the most beautiful wallet ever”, she said during the transfer of power with her predecessor, Sébastien Lecornu. During the previous legislature, she had notably been rapporteur for a fact-finding mission on the institutional future of New Caledonia. Butless than a month after entering the government, she leaves her post. This hasty departure makes ultramarine parliamentarians cringe.
Re-elected deputy in the Yvelines in mid-June, she also benefits from the loss of Richard Ferrand to take over. Designated a candidate for the perch by her political camp, she finally imposed herself against Fatiha Keloua-Hachi (Nupes), Annie Genevard (Les Républicains), Nathalie Bassire (Liberties group, independents, overseas, territories) and Sébastien Chenu (National Rally). “We will have to be in action, in peaceful action. And the role of the President of the National Assembly is also to maintain a climate of peaceful debate between each other”, she then insisted to the press. The task promises to be complex in this hemicycle deprived of an absolute majority.