MPs’ pace of work questioned

“You have to be on all the balls”: without an absolute majority, the new National Assembly demands a constant presence from the deputies, who blame the blow. A meeting on the organization of work takes place on Tuesday morning. The bout of fatigue during the fall budgetary marathon is a classic of parliamentary life. From the presentation of the budget in September to its vote before Christmas, the period has always been demanding. But the absence of an absolute majority complicates the situation. The votes, tighter, require a presence at all times. And the deputies must permanently arbitrate between hemicycle, commission or constituency.

“When you’re a deputy, you have no right to complain, that’s not the point at all”, but “the question is how we work differently now that Parliament has regained a central place” , underlines the rebellious Alexis Corbière. “Each session has become important, with a lot of intensity. You have to be on all the balls. It must have consequences for a reorganization” of the work, he insists.

In the presidential camp, Benjamin Haddad also pleads for a “better articulation between work in the constituency and in session”. During a recent trip to Berlin, deputies noted with envy that the Bundestag “sits every other week”, notes an RN executive. “It’s probably not possible here. But we should at least sanctuary one evening a week without a session, on Fridays,” he claims.

The socialist Christine Pires Beaune would be “fairly favorable to the proposal of two full weeks in Paris, then a week in the constituency”. Because “the truth is that we sit almost every evening until at least midnight, in difficult atmospheres”, underlines Renaissance MP Eric Woerth at the microphone of Europe 1.

Legislative inflation

Requested by the deputies, the president of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet summoned the leaders of the political groups on Tuesday to discuss the pace of work. In a framework letter, she asks them several questions: should we “strengthen the predictability” of the parliamentary calendar, “develop remote work” or “organize votes differently”?

Statistics were also transmitted. The total number of sitting hours day and night has increased constantly: 6,099 hours from 2017 to 2022 compared to 5,037 hours between 2007 and 2012. And the number of amendments is constantly swelling. In the new Assembly, the night sessions are not however more numerous than during the previous legislature, but the deputies called to be more present because of the uncertainties for the votes.

With tensions when the sessions end at 3:15 a.m., as on the night of November 8 to 9, for the adoption of an amending budget 2022 and its extensions against inflation. The text was examined “in haste”, deplores Bertrand Pancher, president of the centrist group Liot. Another subject was invited to the discussion menu: parliamentary obstruction, after the stormy session on Thursday evening where the macronists multiplied the amendments to prevent the vote on an LFI text aimed at reintegrating caregivers not vaccinated against Covid. .

What proposals?

Each group must present its lines of thought, even if the room for maneuver is reduced in the absence of constitutional changes. The president of the socialist group Boris Vallaud “does not ask for more hours of sleep” but “new practices”, to “legislate less and better”. Is the government ready to “give more power to the opposition” on the agenda, he asks.

Ecologist Marie-Charlotte Garin criticizes the government’s repeated use of the constitutional weapon of 49.3 during budget debates. “We often have the impression of working for nothing. (…) Many of us are completely disillusioned with the extremely rigid method”, she attacks.

Bertrand Pancher (Liot) wants a menu of work over the longer term and more resources for parliamentarians, a recurring claim. On the right, Véronique Louwagie (LR) finds that the pace has not “changed much” compared to the previous legislature. But “the discussions are longer, with ten parliamentary groups”, she recalls, wishing above all that the sessions after midnight remain “exceptional”.

In September, in the name of the “new method” and to allow a return to “circo”, there was no extraordinary parliamentary session. And the President of the Assembly had called for “good practices”, such as “texts” of “much shorter” laws with “unique objects”.