2023-07-24 18:48:45
It is in the name of ” separation of powers ” that the Council of State rejected Monday, July 24 the requests of the “rebellious” deputies to cancel the sanctions which were inflicted on them by dozens in the National Assembly for their behavior during the heated debates on the pension reform.
The “rebellious” asked the Council of State to cancel all these sanctions, which according to them constituted “excess of power” from the Bureau of the National Assembly with regard to them.
But the highest administrative court said to itself “incompetent” to speak out. Because “under the French constitutional tradition of separation of powers, it is not for the administrative judge to hear disputes relating to sanctions imposed by the organs of a parliamentary assembly” to its members, it argued, in its three separate decisions.
Read also: A record number of disciplinary sanctions at the National Assembly since the re-election of Emmanuel Macron
Waving of a sign and controversial tweets
“Rebellious” deputies as well as other elected members of Nupes brandish signs “64 years old is no”, during the speech of Elisabeth Borne, who uses article 49.3 in the Assembly, in order to have the pension reform adopted without a vote of the Hemicycle, on March 16, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “THE WORLD”
More than sixty deputies of La France insoumise (LFI) had been targeted at the beginning of April by calls to order for having brandished signs “64 years old is no” during the speech of Elisabeth Borne in the hemicycle, coming to resort to article 49.3, on March 16th.
Other calls to order – the weakest disciplinary sanction provided for by the regulations of the Assembly – had been sent by the office of the Assembly to “rebellious” deputies in mid-March, for having shared on social networks the content of the debates held behind closed doors in a joint joint committee.
The deputy LFI Thomas Portes had meanwhile been excluded from the Assembly in February, for fifteen days, after he had staged for a photo broadcast on Twitter, his foot resting on a ball bearing the effigy of the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt. The Hemicycle was inflamed after his refusal to apologize.
Read also: Pension reform: nearly 80 deputies called to order by the office of the National Assembly
No remedy
During a hearing in early July, the lawyer for the LFI deputies Frédéric Thiriez had called on the Council of State to make its ” wisdom “ by developing its case law. “The status quo would expose France to condemnation by the European Court of Human Rights”he argued.
He recalled that Hungary had been condemned in 2016 by the latter, for “violation of freedom of expression” of opposition deputies, sanctioned for having disrupted a session by brandishing placards. The European judges had not criticized the sanction, but the impossibility of contesting it. Gold, “there is no possible recourse” in the regulations of the Assembly, had insisted Mr. Thiriez.
The Assembly’s sanctions regime “connects with the exercise of national sovereignty by members of Parliament”estimated for its part on Monday the Council of State, according to which “the fact that no court can be seized of such a dispute cannot have the consequence of authorizing the administrative judge to declare itself competent”. European case law does not require “that a parliamentarian who has been subject to a disciplinary sanction enjoys a right of judicial appeal”added the administrative jurisdiction.
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