the allocation of different key positions creates a form of cohabitation

At the end of the battle for key positions in the National Assembly, it is unprecedented but the office has entered into cohabitation. The internal elections of the Palais-Bourbon have redistributed the cards, strengthening the left and the right to the detriment of the Macronists and especially the RN.

After a weekend marked by twists and turns, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the President of the Assembly, finds herself at the head of a bureau – the executive body of the chamber – that is complex and, to say the least, heterogeneous. She will have to work with vice-presidents, quaestors, and group presidents who are not from the presidential bloc, which will limit her room for maneuver.

The New Popular Front managed to obtain the majority of seats in the office, with 12 out of 22 positions going to it, including two vice-presidencies. In addition, the rebels remain at the head of the powerful finance commission with the re-election of the outgoing president, Éric Coquerel.

It is uncomfortable for the presidential camp, even if the alliance with the right of Laurent Wauquiez allows him to obtain six of the eight committee presidencies, including the law committee, or that of foreign affairs. As for Laurent Wauquiez’s team, it finds itself with fewer deputies than under the previous mandate, but with more important positions!

On the other hand, the majority bloc missed out on the role of budget rapporteur, which went to Charles de Courson, a centrist MP from the small Liot group. It was a close call because Charles de Courson was tied with the Macronist Jean-René Cazeneuve: it was age that made the difference, as the Assembly’s rules require in such cases. At 72, Charles de Courson therefore won, and there is no doubt that this expert in public finance will take his role to heart when the future budget is examined at the start of the school year. This also shows how little Liot finds himself, through the play of alliances, as a force with which the presidential bloc will often have to deal.

The big loser remains the National Rally. The Republican front that was applied in the ballot boxes occurred in the hemicycle, with the result that the RN was excluded from all positions. Marine Le Pen denounces “schemes”: certainly, these attributions and results are perfectly legal, they result from games of political alliances, but it is true that they raise questions. Even if Laurent Wauquiez believes that this is a voluntary strategy of the RN, the fact remains that today, more than 10 million RN voters are not taken into account in the life of the institution.

In 1986, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front obtained two secretaries in the bureau of the Assembly when it only had 35 deputies at the time. There, with 126 deputies, the RN has nothing, whereas two months ago, at the Palais Bourbon, it had positions and even a vice-presidency… Enough to fuel the resentment and anger of those who support it.