Yaël Braun-Pivet returns to her perch. The outgoing president of the National Assembly was re-elected Thursday evening at the end of a “historic” and suspenseful day. In the third round, Yaël Braun-Pivet beat the candidate of the New Popular Front, André Chassaigne (PCF), with 220 votes, 207 votes. Sébastien Chenu (RN) almost won all the votes for his camp with 141 votes. Faced with an “Assembly more divided than ever”, she stressed from the podium the need for deputies to “seek compromises”, to be “capable of dialogue, of listening to each other and of moving forward”. “This election perhaps obliges me more than ever, more than that of 2022”, she said.
After this first highly contested election to the perch, the deputies are tackling the distribution of other key positions this Friday, with divergent visions which suggest strong tensions around the places left to the RN.
Key information to remember
⇒ Yaël Braun-Pivet re-elected President of the National Assembly
⇒ The left is outraged by “swindles”
⇒ Sébastien Chenu (RN) denounces a “victory of the schemes”
The left is outraged by “schemes”
The French vote in the legislative elections “was stolen” during the re-election of Yaël Braun-Pivet as president of the National Assembly by an “unnatural alliance” between the presidential camp and the right, said André Chassaigne, the unsuccessful candidate for the Perchoir on behalf of the New Popular Front (NFP), on Thursday. The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, denounced on the X network a “new coup de force by a clique ready to do anything to keep all the powers”. He also said that a “red line” had been “crossed with the illicit vote of ministers” elected as deputies, who participated in the Assembly vote.
Alongside André Chassaigne, the leader of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, denounced “a terrible signal for democracy”. “The shenanigans today not only stole the result of the ballot boxes of July 7, but took precedence over the result of the ballot boxes that gave the New Popular Front as the leading political force”, she added. Yaël Braun-Pivet “should have had the decency not to run” and “the president’s supporters […] to recognize defeat” and “yet they are hanging on with little backroom deals,” added Cyrielle Chatelain, leader of the Green Party deputies.
Macron says Braun-Pivet will ensure “the expression of diversity of sensibilities”
Emmanuel Macron congratulated Yaël Braun-Pivet on her re-election as President of the National Assembly, hailing her “republican responsibility”. “Everyone who knows you knows that you will ensure that the plurality of opinions is respected and that the diversity of sensibilities is expressed,” the head of state said on X.
He had said he wanted to wait for the new Assembly to be structured before deciding on the formation of a new government, which therefore sees a member of his camp gaining access to the rostrum despite her defeat in the early legislative elections.
Chenu (RN) denounces a “victory of schemes”
Sébastien Chenu, candidate of the National Rally for the election to the presidency of the National Assembly, denounced on X on Thursday a “victory of the schemes” for Yaël Braun-Pivet, outgoing president Renaissance, re-elected with in particular the votes of the LR deputies after an agreement. It is a “Pyrrhic victory”, “unnatural, between the Macronists and Les Républicains”, denounced the former vice-president of the Assembly on LCI. “The Republicans who got themselves elected 15 days ago by saying that they were the opposition to Emmanuel Macron have just voted for Yaël Braun-Pivet”, he also criticized, judging that this election “circumvented the will of the voters”.