Elisabeth Borne during the session of questions to the government, at the National embly, June 6, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “THE WORLD”
“Yes, we are in relative majority. So what ? » In the tranquility of his office at the Ministry of Relations with Parliament, Franck Riester displays unfeigned optimism when discussing this very special legislature.
One year after the second round of the legislative elections, on June 19, 2022, which profoundly upset the balance of the National embly – with the loss of the absolute majority for the presidential camp and the arrival of 89 deputies from the National Rally ( RN) –, “the reality is that Parliament works”ures Mr. Riester, recalling that twenty-eight bills have been adopted, “including only three with the 49.3 [cet article de la Constitution permet d’adopter un texte sans vote] ». Thus minimizing the inability of the executive to find a majority in this embly on its two budgetary texts in the fall of 2022 and especially on its emblematic reform, that of pensions, in March.
The serenity of the Minister for Relations with Parliament contrasts with the constant tension and unpredictability that has prevailed for a year now in the hemicycle of the Palais-Bourbon. “The texts p. But at what cost ? That of moving away a little more each time from our ability to reform”notes the vice-president (Horizons) of the National embly, Naïma Moutchou.
The 2022 legislative elections confirmed the tripartition of political life, with three main blocs: in the centre, the three groups of the presidential coalition – Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons – with 251 deputies; on the left, the 151 elected members of the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union (Nupes); and, on the far right, the RN deputies.
But this 16e legislature is above all marked by the unprecedented antagonism between the executive power and the legislative power. With, underlyingly, a confrontation of two legitimacies that have been constantly replayed in parliamentary life for a year: that of the presidential election, where Emmanuel Macron was re-elected without momentum against the far right; and that of an embly fragmented into ten groups, where the Head of State does not have an absolute majority to apply his program to the letter.
“Two regimes rendered powerless”
The first parliamentary debates were marked by the resurgence of the left-right divide on texts such as purchasing power or unemployment insurance. But the examination of the budgets in the fall and especially of pension reform brought to light the structural difficulties of the government, condemned to follow a strategy of “text by text” carried by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
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