the uncomfortable position of ministers elected as deputies

The current government is still in office, but the situation is complex for the ministers who were elected as deputies on Sunday.

There are 17 of them who wear both hats: minister and MP, except that as long as Emmanuel Macron does not accept the government’s resignation, they cannot really be MPs, and not really ministers either. One of them admits to being “in total confusion”, as to his date of arrival at the Assembly while calling himself a minister “amputee”Legally, they still have full latitude to make decisions, politically it is something else. “You can neither work seriously in the ministry nor be useful to the Assembly,” summarizes a chief of staff.

It is a problem for them not to be deputies right away because next week there are elections for the main posts in the Palais Bourbon. If the government does not resign – and therefore only switch to managing current affairs – the minister-deputies will not be able to vote on July 18 for the presidency of the Assembly, nor for the highly prized posts of quaestors, nor for the presidencies of committees… “In the current situation, we cannot afford the luxury of doing without 17 votes,” warn executives of the former majority. Many of them hope that, failing to have a new government, the head of state will accept that the current one resigns at the beginning of next week.

Minister-deputies cannot vote in the Assembly for key positions, and cannot be elected either. You cannot combine minister and a position of responsibility at the Palais Bourbon. Minister and vice-president of the Assembly, for example, is impossible… Again, unless Emmanuel Macron accepts the government’s resignation and releases them. For internal votes within groups, it is more vague, knowing that the question arises for Gabriel Attal or Gérald Darmanin to take the lead of their troops. At the MoDem, too, there are questions; some deputies would like to see Marc Fesneau return to service as group leader, a position he held before becoming minister. The problem is that no one knows when members of the government will eventually be available for this type of function! “There are still too many unknowns,” slips an advisor.

Legally, they have a period of one month, until August 8, to choose between minister and deputy. If by that time the government still has not resigned, the ministers’ deputies would take up their posts in the National Assembly a month later, at the beginning of September. A pillar of the Palais Bourbon plays it down: “Normally, the ministers will return to their seats when the October parliamentary session begins!”