How will the opening of the parliamentary session in the National Assembly take place?

The deputies will elect their president on Thursday. Before proceeding, over three days, to a wave of strategic designations, particularly uncertain in a very fragmented hemicycle.

A return to school in the middle of July. This is what the 577 deputies elected in the early legislative elections will experience. The 17th legislature of the Fifth Republic, precipitated by the dissolution desired by Emmanuel Macron after the European elections, officially begins on Thursday, July 18 for a theoretical duration of five years. Theoretical, because a new dissolution will be possible from the first anniversary of the second round of the legislative elections, which changed the face of the Palais-Bourbon.

For now, the deputies must, in three days, vote for the presidency of the lower house, designate those who will occupy strategic positions, and divide themselves into different parliamentary committees. Obligatory passages that this year take on a crucial character in a very divided hemicycle. Franceinfo details the schedule for this already decisive weekend.

Thursday, 3 p.m.: Election for the presidency of the National Assembly

Who will succeed Yaël Braun-Pivet in the Perchoir? We will know on Thursday afternoon. From 3 p.m., the 577 elected or re-elected deputies will take their places in alphabetical order in the hemicycle. The first session is always chaired by the oldest member of the Assembly, assisted by the six youngest deputies. “who perform the functions of secretaries”specifies the National Assembly. As in 2022, it is the RN deputy José Gonzalez, 81 years old, who will speak to declare the mandate open. During his first speech, the elected representative of Bouches-du-Rhône had triggered a lively controversy by making highly criticized remarks on French Algeria.

Then, the 577 deputies will choose, by secret ballot, the president of the National Assembly. Each parliamentarian goes up to the podium to vote, then scrutineers proceed to count the votes. In the first and second rounds, an absolute majority of the 577 votes is required to be elected president of the National Assembly. Given the composition of the chamber since July 7, it is difficult to imagine a candidate obtaining the 289 votes necessary to take up his or her seat in the Perchoir at the end of the second round. A third round should then be organized, this time by relative majority: the leading candidate wins. In the event of a tie, the oldest candidate is elected. He or she then delivers his or her first speech to the deputies.

Thursday, before 6 p.m.: the composition of the groups

Each group submits to the presidency, before 6 p.m., the list of its members and can specify whether or not it is placing itself in opposition. A particularly complex choice this year, due to the difficulty in achieving a majority. Unless there is a last-minute change, 11 groups will make up the future hemicycle.

Friday: the designation of other key positions in the National Assembly

After the President of the National Assembly, there will remain 21 strategic positions to be filled on Friday to make up the office of the body: six vice-presidents, three quaestors and twelve secretaries. The vice-presidents sit on the conference of presidents and occasionally act as substitutes to lead a session. The quaestors occupy a position that allows the budget to be drawn up and the staff of the Assembly to be managed. Finally, the secretaries supervise the voting operations and the counting of certain ballots.

On Friday at 10 a.m., the group presidents will meet to distribute these office positions and “to the possible establishment, in the order of presentation, of the list of their candidates for the functions of vice-president, quaestor and secretary”as well as the seats of the eight standing committees, details the National Assembly website. “The composition of the Bureau strives to reproduce the political configuration of the Assembly”, with a particular calculation: each function costs a certain number of points and each group has a number of points depending on its weight in the Assembly.

From 3 p.m., in public session, the appointment will take place, “possibly by ballot”of the holders of these 21 positions, if a consensus has not previously emerged between the presidents of the groups. This year, their distribution will be particularly complicated by the absence of a majority, but above all by the disparate attitudes towards the RN, which had won two vice-presidencies in 2022: the left called for no position to be left to the far-right party, while the Renaissance group agreed to block both the RN and La France Insoumise.

Friday, before 6 p.m.: applications for the eight standing committees

Applications for standing committees must be submitted to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the National Assembly before 6 p.m. The composition of each committee is determined based on the size of the groups; the larger the group, the more seats it occupies in a committee.

In total, there are eight standing committees: the Economic Affairs Committee; the Foreign Affairs Committee; the Social Affairs Committee; the National Defence and Armed Forces Committee; the Cultural Affairs and Education Committee; the Sustainable Development and Regional Planning Committee; the Finance Committee; and the Laws Committee. Their best-known role is to study and amend laws before they are examined in public session.

Saturday, at 10:30 a.m.: the appointment of the presidents of the eight permanent committees

Saturday begins with the publication in the Official Journal of the composition of the eight standing committees. They meet at 10:30 a.m. to elect their bureau. Some committee presidencies are particularly sought after, such as that of the powerful Finance Committee, which always goes to a member of parliament from an opposition group, since a change in the National Assembly’s rules of procedure dating back to 2007.

Saturday, midday: meetings of the conference of presidents and the bureau

At 12:30 p.m., the Conference of Presidents meets for the first time. It includes the President of the National Assembly, the Vice-Presidents, the Presidents of the various parliamentary groups, the Presidents of the Standing Committees and the European Affairs Committee, as well as the General Rapporteurs of the Social Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, details the institution’s website. The Bureau of the Assembly meets at 3:30 p.m.

Until August 2: the session continues as of right

According to Article 12 of the Constitution, after a dissolution and early legislative elections, a parliamentary session is “open by right for a period of 15 days”. The deputies could therefore sit at least until Friday, August 2, before an extraordinary session in August or September, or the resumption of the ordinary session in early October. However, the parliamentarians do not currently have any bill to study, the dissolution having put an end to all the work of the National Assembly and the government being confined to the management of “current affairs”.