INFOGRAPHIC. Visualize the evolution of the number of parliamentary groups in the National Assembly since 1958

Fragmentation of certain parties, minimum thresholds… Several factors explain the increase in the number of groups, which now stands at eleven and which risks complicating parliamentary life.

Thursday July 18, after the election of Yaël Braun-Pivet At the presidency of the National Assembly, the 577 deputies have officially chosen their parliamentary groups. Each of them has submitted to the general secretariat of the presidency a political declaration signed by their members and related deputies, in accordance with article 19 of the rules of the lower house. For this 17th legislature, eleven groups will therefore sit at the Palais-Bourbon. In detail, these are the Democratic and Republican Left, La France insoumise – NFP, Ecologiste et Social, the Socialists, the Democrats, Together for the Republic, Horizons & Independents, the Republican Right, A droite, the National Rally and LIOT.

While the number of senatorial groups in the upper house remains relatively stable (between six and nine since 1959), the number of political parties in the National Assembly has continued to increase since 2012. Before that date, it had never exceeded six and has now reached 11. since July 18. This figure is the highest in the history of the Fifth Republic.

For Gilles Toulemonde, lecturer in public law at the University of Lille, two aspects, legal and political, explain the multiplication of parliamentary groups.“Since the constitutional revision of 2008 which granted specific rights to opposition and minority groups, it has become interesting to be part of one of these two types of formations, he tells franceinfo. These parties now have the opportunity to make their own little tune heard during parliamentary niches and questions to the government, and have every interest in playing their own personal score.”

“Parties are finding it increasingly difficult to engage in dialogue with each other and to unite within a group. This is symptomatic of a fragmentation of political representation.”

Gilles Toulemonde, lecturer in public law at the University of Lille

to franceinfo

In the 1936 elections, then under the Third Republic, the Popular Front coalition, bringing together left-wing and centre-left parties, had triumphed by winning 386 out of 608 seats. They had subsequently formed 16 separate parliamentary groups. Although the Chamber of Deputies, today called the National Assembly, and its rules had changed drastically since then, the formation of parliamentary groups had also been marked by significant political fragmentation.

Several conditions are required for the formation of a parliamentary group. The two main ones are the signing of a joint declaration by the different members of the group and a minimum number of signatories of this declaration, currently amounting to 15 deputies. Below this number, deputies from the same political party are considered non-registered. Furthermore, a parliamentarian can only be a member of one group.

In the National Assembly, the minimum threshold for forming a group has been steadily reduced over the years. In 1988, it was reduced from 30 to 20 members to allow the communists to form a parliamentary group despite their numerical weakness. Then, in 2009, it was reduced to 15 members after a promise by Nicolas Sarkozy aimed at convincing the deputies of the New Centre and the Radical Party of the Left to support the constitutional revision of July 23, 2008, which was finally passed in extremis by just a two-vote majority.

“A high threshold will contribute to the rationalization of parliamentary work by limiting the expression of the diversity of parliamentarians, with the aim of stabilizing the government. While a low threshold will contribute to the pluralism of political expression”underlines the lecturer to franceinfo.

A third condition, introduced during the 2008 reform on the modernisation of institutions, now requires political groups to state in black and white whether they intend to be part of the opposition or whether they constitute a minority group. The latter are the groups linked to the majority that are the least numerous or those that are neither in the majority nor in the opposition.

The status of minority groups and the opposition gives them common rights, including the right to place on the agenda, once a month, a proposed law in a parliamentary niche. “The ordinary session runs from October to June, which theoretically means nine days a year dedicated to parliamentary niches.”decrypts Gilles Toulemonde. With 8 opposition groups and 2 minority groups, or 10 in total in the 17th legislature, agenda problems are likely to arise. With the increase in the number of groups, it would theoretically only be possible for one of these groups to defend a bill during parliamentary recesses once every 10 months, beyond the nine months that the ordinary session lasts.