2024-02-15 20:01:06
Gabriel Attal (center), during a question session to the government, at the National Assembly, in Paris, February 13, 2024. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
In the National Assembly, the scene is repeated every Tuesday, and now every Wednesday afternoon. Sparse benches, ministers and deputies with their eyes glued to their phones, barely listening to the murderous criticisms of members of the opposition towards the executive like the remote-guided questions from elected officials from the presidential camp transmitted in advance to ministers in need of news… The question sessions with the government (QAG) end up tiring of their actors. A subject of concern for the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, who had mentioned during a tête-à-tête with the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, the idea that the latter could answer the deputies’ questions alone, to try to remedy the lack of interest in the QAG, broadcast in particular live on LCP.
On Thursday, it was through information from Franceinfo that the presidency of the National Assembly learned that the tenant of Matignon said he was in favor of the idea of submitting to this unprecedented exercise, inspired by the oral question session in the British Parliament. which is held every Wednesday in which the Prime Minister responds for an hour to MPs in the House of Commons. “My nature is to respond when someone calls me. I’m not the type to hide behind my ministers”launched Thursday, Mr. Attal traveling to the Marne, to meet farmers.
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This initiative aims firstly for the Prime Minister to take advantage of the time spent on the benches of the Hemicycle, while his presence in Parliament is currently limited to these 3.5 hours a week of current affairs questions in the Assembly. then to the Senate. However, in the relative majority, this incompressible time spent in particular on the benches of the Hemicycle of the Palais-Bourbon tends to lengthen for the head of government.
So much so that this constrained agenda ended up being a serious obstacle to the action of her predecessor, Elisabeth Borne, constantly under fire from opposition, between the two-hour sessions devoted to each of the thirty-one motions of censure postponed to the Assembly – a record – and the twenty-three recourses to 49.3 announced from the Assembly platform. Ms. Borne had also refused in the fall to take part in this solitary exercise of current affairs on Wednesdays.
“A risk of wear and tear”
In a Hemicycle divided into ten groups, “ some sessions are already turning into a question session for the Prime Minister,” notes the former President of the National Assembly, François de Rugy, while parliamentary tradition dictates that the Prime Minister only answers questions asked by the group presidents.
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