Tuesday is the day of “QAG” in the Assembly: an appointment yet more and more neglected by the deputies. Jean-Rémi Baudot’s political brief.
“Hello everyone, the meeting is open. The agenda calls for questions to the government…” : this is the consecrated formula of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet at the opening of Questions to the government – or QAG for short -, invariably scheduled for Tuesday at 3 p.m. On the program: two hours of exchanges between MPs and the government on politics and current affairs. Except that this democratic and parliamentary ritual is increasingly deserted.
Vaucluse: “We must sow humanity, we lack it”, pleads the mayor of Lauris who resigned after the attack on one of his deputies
Officially, there is no count on the deputies present, but it is enough to look at the images. Last Tuesday, barely a hundred deputies in the hemicycle out of 577: that’s less than 20% of the troops. A trend that we have been observing for several months…
“Two hours is too long, the questions are repeated”
Among the reasons, we note very busy schedules in recent weeks. Elected officials have time to catch up in the constituency. Yes, but… there may be something else, less avowable, which an opposition MP summed up as follows: “It got very boring“.
An opinion shared by the opposition in the majority, including by the ministers and even the presidency of the Assembly, who obviously says it with more subdued words: “Two hours is too long, the subjects go around in circles and the questions are repeated“, confirms the entourage of the President of the Assembly.
And it’s true that with 27 questions and as many answers, “The second hour is the hardest.” sighs a macronist executive. Note, however, that this has not always been the case: before 2019 and a reform initiated by Richard Ferrand, it was twice an hour, on Tuesday then on Wednesday. But now, it’s two hours in a row and two minutes per question with right of answer (which was supposed to boost the exchanges). In the end, these are either too polite questions from the majority, or tense exchanges with the opposition. The invective becomes the norm, the brouhaha, the habit…
Too many questions just for the buzz
So what solution? Maybe review the format again. The President of the Assembly is considering it without having the answer for the moment. “We are not going to go back over two days“, slips Yaël Braun-Pivet. The Senate now has its own “QAG” on Wednesday. The other option would be to reduce the pressure among the deputies, as in the government which is not free from provocations.
Moreover, observe: most MPs only post their question on social networks and only very rarely the government’s response. As if the answer didn’t matter. As if only the political circus and the buzz counted. To believe that the effects of platforms for Twitter have damaged the dialogue in the hemicycle.