However, we had shouted it from the rooftops: the “Attal show” was this Wednesday, April 3, at 2 p.m. sharp! Have some people forgotten it? Did the main interested party expect to find the bays of the hemicycle so sparse? The few regulars will still applaud, not without irony, the arrival of the Prime Minister at the Palais Bourbon. Because today is his day: he is the only one to answer the questions of the national representation. And Gabriel Attal, whose nervous agitation of his leg under the desk betrays anxiety, “is delighted to be able to experiment with this new format”, he who “always accepts proposals which [lui] are made”. On the menu, on the MPs’ side, a dozen speeches from elected officials from the majority and the opposition. The head of government, for the occasion, has a wardrobe heavily loaded with fifteen different hats. And this mission: “Boost interest in QAG (questions to the government).” So be it, “the Prime Minister has the floor”.
Exercise time: 45 minutes; felt: two hours. The Assembly was filled in trickles, without it being possible to say that the exercise had unleashed curiosities. And Gabriel Attal, whose imprecision in certain answers annoyed the opposition, wore his former clothes more as a government spokesperson than those of a multi-hatted Prime Minister. This is the first assessment of the races.
The main oppositions refused to offer the soloist the conditions of the show. No more speeches by heavyweights and other group presidents. Here is the National Rally, represented by the deputy from the North, Sébastien Chenu – Marine Le Pen stormed off mid-session – tackling the budgetary choices of the executive, “a flute tune which is not enchanted for the Mozarts of finance”. Or La France Insoumise, through the voice of Adrien Quatennens, questioning the executive on unemployment in France. Gabriel Attal alone on stage, facing the second knives. The Prime Minister will make do with the European campaign in his sights. So he hits. On the first, whose party is widening the gap with the presidential party: “With you, it would be the twilight of pensions and the enchanted debt!” Then on the Insoumis, for the sake of form: “No need to scream to stop me from speaking! Use your voice to go and shout somewhere else or I don’t know where, in a demonstration!”
Coming down from the perch, the President of the National Assembly, Yael Braun-Pivet, surveys her colleagues: “So, is it good or not good? Well, we’ll see over five sessions.” Come on, four more Wednesdays…