The parliamentary reserve, abolished in 2017, allowed parliamentarians to finance associations and communities in their constituency. On Wednesday, deputies launched the offensive to restore it.
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Some 144 deputies, from Renaissance to LFI, including LR and the RN, signed a bill to demand the return of the parliamentary reserve. This system allowed parliamentarians to award subsidies to municipalities or associations in their constituency, up to 130,000 euros per elected official per year. A system judged “clientelist” and very “Old World” by the Macronists who removed it in 2017. But today there are “repentants“ who regret their vote at the time, like Frédéric Descrozaille, Renaissance deputy for Val-de-Marne. With around ten deputies from all parties, he is organizing a pro-reserve press conference on Wednesday September 27.
“Sponsor projects”
Six years after voting for the deletion, he wants to go back. “I thought it wasn’t our job to give grants, entrusts this “repentant”, but the reserve makes it possible to sponsor projects, to create social ties”. And Frédéric Descrozaille cites this teacher who needed money for a school trip dedicated to the memory of the Shoah.
His pro-reserve colleagues give other examples: the municipality which wants to renovate its media library, the kindergarten which wants a water collector to water the school’s vegetable garden. Without this parliamentary envelope, it is impossible for these deputies to provide a financial boost. A former minister admits, “Subsidizing helps to have local influence. With the end of the accumulation of mandates and the reserve, there are deputies who are not even counted in their constituency!”
Discuss the subject in the hemicycle
But the return of the reserve is not won. “As long as we haven’t taken the penalty we don’t know if it goes in.” philosopher a deputy. The bill must already earn the right to be debated in the Assembly. The press conference aims to put pressure on. A vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France will be there to show that the approach is supported. A Macronist, on the other hand, broke away.
He regrets that “the RN and LFI are signatories, this weakens the initiative”. A minister is skeptical: “We can propose in a presidential campaign to return to the reservation and the non-cumulative mandates, he said, but without going through an election it risks not being understood by the French.” On the other hand, improve the conditions for awarding small subsidies, why not.