2023-08-10 14:00:20
Senator LR from Meurthe-et-Moselle, Jean-François Husson, and Socialist Senator from Haute-Garonne and Chairman of the Finance Committee, Claude Raynal, present the final report of the investigation into the Marianne fund, in Paris, July 6, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
Perceived by the executive as an island of stability and moderation as a counter-mirror to an unpredictable National Assembly, the Senate has nevertheless imposed itself as the true chamber of control of government action. Latest example to date: the senatorial investigation into the Marianne fund led by the socialist chairman of the finance committee, Claude Raynal (Haute-Garonne), and by senator Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains, LR, Meurthe-et- Moselle).
At the end of two months of highly publicized hearings, with the main questioning of the former Secretary of State in charge of the social and solidarity economy Marlène Schiappa, the senators denounced in a report made public on July 6 there “drift of a political coup” full of“amateurism”. Conducted in parallel with an investigation opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, this senatorial commission contributed to weakening the position of Marlène Schiappa in the government, finally landed on July 20 during the reshuffle. “The mission of controlling the government is done in the Senate », Assumes Claude Raynal, who defends himself from any partiality: “We are not at all on an attack from the government or from a particular minister. »
In addition to this commission on the Marianne fund, other investigations at the Palais du Luxembourg have illustrated its intransigence regarding the action of the executive, such as the commissions of inquiry into the incidents at the Stade de France in 2022, on the appeal ” all-round “ et « opaque » consulting firms, whose conclusions were unveiled during the 2022 presidential campaign, or the more emblematic one concerning the Benalla affair in the summer of 2018. So many commissions that have particularly embarrassed the power in place, which of its absence of senators in a Luxembourg Palace won over to the right and to the centre.
“Justify the existence of the Senate”
“A chamber that is not held by the presidential majority has more latitude to carry out actions a little more substantively, without too much political limitation”continues Mr. Raynal, recalling that the law commission of the National Assembly, held by the Macronist deputies, had given up dealing with the Benalla affair, under pressure from the Elysée. “This very well-attended episode demonstrated the effectiveness of the Senate compared to the National Assembly”emphasizes Jean-Jacques Urvoas, professor of public law at the University of Brest.
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For the former Socialist Minister of Justice, senators, who do not have the possibility of tabling motions of censure to overthrow the government and who are therefore not threatened with dissolution, unlike deputies, have since sought the beginning of the Fifth Republic “developing specific means to exercise this ability to control” of the executive. “Senators live as a sort of ardent daily obligation the fact of justifying the existence of the Senate. They do not see themselves as a counter-power, but as parliamentary power”continues Mr. Urvoas.
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