ASSEMBLY. A relative majority for Emmanuel Macron, the first woman president of the Assembly, the left at the head of the finance committee… Find the composition and the key positions of the National Assembly.
The legislative elections of June 12 and 19, 2022 renewed the composition of the National Assembly in an unprecedented way: although re-elected President of the Republic a few weeks earlier, in April 2022, Emmanuel Macron found himself deprived of an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament. The presidential majority (Renaissance ex-LREM, MoDem, Horizons) has thus lost a hundred deputies compared to the previous mandate, to reach 250 seats, while the absolute majority is set at 289.
In this new Assembly, the opposition has therefore placed itself in a position of strength, although it is very divided. The left started this 16th legislature of the Fifth Republic with 141 seats in the hemicycle, thanks to a historic coalition, the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). The National Rally has never been so powerful for its part in the Assembly, with 89 deputies. The Republicans, on the other hand, have signed a sharp decline compared to the previous legislature, falling from 101 to 62 seats.
Among the highlights of the 16th legislature officially started on June 28, 2022: the National Assembly elected its first woman president. Yaël Braun-Pivet, from the majority group Renaissance (ex-LREM), won by an absolute majority in the second round, thanks to the withdrawal of the candidate of the National Rally, Sébastien Chenu. Six vice-presidents were elected in the following days, including two from the presidential majority, two from Nupes and two from the National Rally. The presidential majority also obtained two quaestors’ posts, the last of which went to LR deputy Eric Ciotti. Of the eight standing committees of the Assembly, seven have logically found their presidents among the deputies of the majority coalition. The eighth, the coveted finance committee, which is traditionally chaired by a deputy from the opposition, elected as its head the deputy of rebellious France, Eric Coquerel, on June 30, 2022.
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What is the composition of the National Assembly?
The final composition of the National Assembly for the 16th legislature was unveiled at the Official Journal Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Discover below the distribution of seats by groups in the National Assembly. A graph showing the legislative results 2022 as communicated by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday June 20 is also proposed.
The three groups that make up the presidential majority (Renaissance – ex LREM with 168 deputies and 4 relatives, Democrats – Modem with 48 deputies and Horizons with 28 elected officials and 2 relatives) all together have 250 deputies, far from the absolute majority set at 289 seats . The Nupes coalition, made up of four groups (LFI with 75 deputies, PS with 27 deputies and 4 relatives, EELV with 23 deputies and the communists under the name “Democratic and Republican Left” with 22 elected), has 151. The National Rally group has 89 elected members, that of the Republicans party has 62. There remains a “Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories” group of 16 deputies and 9 non-registered members to complete this Assembly.
What are the 10 parliamentary groups in the National Assembly?
When they entered the National Assembly, the deputies divided themselves into 10 parliamentary groups. A parliamentary group is made up of at least 15 deputies, who meet by political affinity. The formation of parliamentary groups confers several advantages, including the granting of work and meeting spaces, as well as additional collaborators. Speaking time in the hemicycle and seats in the committees are allocated in proportion to the size of the parliamentary groups. The group presidents also have the power to request a suspension of the meeting or a public vote.
The presidential majority is therefore made up of three groups: Renaissance, Democrat (MoDem and independents) and Horizons. The other seven groups are declared opposition or minority. Among them, the four Nupes groups (LFI, PS, EELV and Democratic and Republican Left) have set up an intergroup to coordinate their action. Opposition groups and minority groups have some advantages: one session per month is devoted to an agenda set by them and they can also propose the creation of commissions of inquiry. Finally, nine deputies are unregistered, ie they sit outside any parliamentary group. Here is the list of the ten groups of the National Assembly for the XVIth legislature:
- Rebirth: 168 members, 4 relatives. President: Aurore Bergé
- National Gathering: 88 members, 1 related. President: Marine Le Pen
- Rebellious France: 75 members. President: Mathilde Panot
- The Republicans : 59 members, 3 relatives. President: Olivier Marleix
- Democrat (MoDem and Independents): 48 members. President: Jean-Paul Mattei
- Socialists: 27 members, 4 relatives. President: Boris Vallaud
- Horizons: 28 members, 2 relatives. President: Laurent Marcangeli
- Ecologists: 23 members. Co-presidents: Julien Bayou and Cyrielle Chatelain
- Democratic and Republican left (communists and relatives): 22 members. President: André Chassaigne
- Liberties, self-employed, Overseas and territories: 16 members. Co-presidents: Bertrand Pancher and Christophe Naegelen.
Here is the complete list of the 577 deputies sitting in the National Assembly for this 16th legislature. The names of the deputies are accompanied by the group in which they have chosen to sit. It is possible to scroll the rows of the table to discover all the names of the elected officials.
Who are the members of the office of the National Assembly?
President, vice-presidents, quaestors… The positions of the office of the National Assembly, responsible for the proper functioning of the institution, were allocated on June 29, 2022. The office is made up of the president of the Assembly, six vice-presidents, three quaestors and 12 secretaries. The office of the National Assembly must reflect the political composition of the hemicycle. Renaissance MP Yaël Braun-Pivet was elected President of the National Assembly on Tuesday June 28, 2022, during a secret ballot, in public session, in the hemicycle. In the absence of a unanimous agreement between the presidents of the groups on the distribution of the other posts of the office, their allocation was also the subject of a vote of all the deputies, by secret ballot.
The three posts of quaestors went to Éric Woerth (Renaissance), Marie Guévenoux (Renaissance) and Éric Ciotti (Les Républicains). The Questure is responsible for the financial and administrative stewardship of the National Assembly. The six vice-presidential positions are shared as follows: two for the minority tendencies of the presidential majority: Naïma Moutchou (Horizons) and Elodie Jacquier-Laforge (MoDem); two for Nupes: Valérie Rabault (PS) and Caroline Fiat (LFI); two, finally, for the National Rally: Hélène Laporte and Sébastien Chenu. The main role of the vice-presidents is to relay the president to the “Perchoir”, to chair the sessions, but they also share the direction of the delegations of the National Assembly.
Finally, the positions of the 12 secretaries of the National Assembly, supposed to ensure the smooth running of the votes in the hemicycle, went to Christophe Blanchet, Caroline Janvier, Claire Pitollat, Rémy Rebeyrotte and Jean Terlier (Renaissance), Laurence Vichnievsky (Democrat ), Yannick Favennec-Bécot (Horizons), Soumya Bourouaha (GDR), Danièle Obono (LFI), Hubert Julien-Laferrière (Ecologists), Philippe Gosselin (LR) and Pierre Morel-A-L’Huissier (LIOT).
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Who are the presidents of the eight standing committees of the National Assembly?
The National Assembly has eight standing committees responsible for examining bills or legislative proposals before they are voted on in the Chamber. The role of a commission is also to inform the deputies about the stakes of a text of law before it is voted on. The commissions are made up of deputies, the parliamentary groups are allocated a number of seats proportional to their representation in the hemicycle. They are traditionally chaired by deputies from the presidential majority. The only exception: the Finance Committee, for which the regulations of the National Assembly have provided since 2009 that it must be chaired by an opposition deputy. The presidents of the permanent committees elected at the beginning of the XVIth legislature are:
- Cultural Affairs and Education Committee: Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo (Horizons)
- Economic Affairs Committee: Guillaume Kasbarian (Renaissance)
- Foreign Affairs: Jean-Louis Bourlanges (MoDem)
- Social Affairs Committee: Fadila Khattabi (Renaissance)
- National defense and armed forces: Thomas Gassilloud (Agir Ensemble)
- Sustainable development and regional planning: Jean-Marc Zulesi (Renaissance)
- Finance: Eric Coquerel (Rebellious France)
- Law Commission: Sacha Houlié (Renaissance)
What is the role of the Chairman of the Assembly’s Finance Committee?
Made up of 73 deputies, this permanent committee has the main role of controlling the State budget. It can control the application of this same budget by appearing unannounced in any ministry, to check the expenditure when it wishes. This monitoring role even extends to the hearing of ministers or any person directly linked to national finance, which may concern the directors of public companies. Finally, it can contact the Competition Authority to request the opening of a parliamentary commission of inquiry or reject amendments that would affect the State budget.
The seats of the deputies of this commission are distributed in proportion to the weight of their group. On the other hand, “can only be elected to the presidency of the finance, general economy and budgetary control committee a deputy belonging to a group having declared itself to be in opposition”, specifies article 39 of the rules. of the National Assembly. The Chairman of the Finance Committee has access to documents covered by fiscal secrecy. He can also reject the amendments made to the various bills: for that, he only needs to prove that their financing poses a problem.
For the 16th legislature, Eric Coquerel, deputy for rebellious France, was elected chairman of the finance committee of the National Assembly, thanks to the support of the deputies of the Nupes inter-group. A great disappointment for the National Rally, which hoped, as the first opposition group, to get their hands on this strategic position.