Tradition respected. As has been the case since Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to the Élysée, the very prominent post of the presidency of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly falls to the opposition: and to the game of a very close vote after three rounds of voting behind closed doors and by secret ballot which took place at the end of the morning this Thursday, the deputies who were members of the commission chose the Insoumis Éric Coquerel, who was the big favorite.
The LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis won in the third round with 21 votes against 11 for the RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy and 9 for the LR Véronique Louwagie, while the majority deputies abstained. “What the Nupes carries will have implications in the way I will apply this mandate”, immediately reacted the rebellious elected official, saying he was “satisfied that this election respected democratic forms”.
Incidentally, Eric Coquerel rejected any idea of ”personal or individual witch hunts”, while he will have the possibility of having tax information. “It’s not my intention,” he said, not excluding “lifting tax secrets to look into matters of tax evasion.”
“He is someone who has worked on his files”
A tireless defender of “lower-income neighborhoods”, this close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon inherited this coveted position, since the Finance Committee examines all draft budgets before they are examined in the hemicycle. During the previous legislature, Éric Coquerel, 63, was already a member of this same commission, which has some 70 members. “He was very present, very diligent, this is not the case for everyone. He is someone who has worked on his files, ”recognizes the socialist deputy Christine Pires-Beaune.
Through his availability to journalists, he has established himself over the past ten years as one of the most media-focused melenchonists. But it is also omnipresent in demonstrations, pickets, student struggles or in neighborhoods. “He is an action deputy, he likes to participate in social movements”, reports Pascal Troadec, deputy mayor of Grigny (Val-de-Marne) and one of the organizers at LFI of militant collectives in the cities.
“Nupes piracy on all posts”
Before this election, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, had promised last week that the majority “would respect traditions” and would not take part in the election, leaving the opposition to organize itself. “We wash our hands of it, we don’t have to get involved” and “not sure there is a good solution”, even commented an LREM deputy.
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Of which act, and this election obviously gave rise to a game of opposition between the supporters of Coquerel and those of RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy. The latter had also mentioned a “piracy of the Nupes on all the posts of the National Assembly”. The far-right group believing that the post should come to it thanks to its 89 deputies, against some 75 rebels, around thirty socialists, 23 ecologists and around twenty communists.