The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet decided on Friday to deprive LFI deputy Ugo Bernalicis of a quarter of his parliamentary allowance, for having caused a scandal the day before in committee, by loudly demanding a suspension of the debates. “Mr. Ugo Bernalicis disrupted the progress of the debates, disturbed order and provoked the other deputies in an outrageous manner”, justified the presidency of the Assembly in a press release, announcing that the deputy from the North would thus be deprived of some 1476 euros over one month.
“Thanks to Yaël Braun-Pivet for the immediate sanction”
Standing and thundering, the deputy from the North called on Thursday evening for an interruption of the debates to allow the deputies of the committee, busy with the immigration bill, to go to the hemicycle. The reason ? An LFI text, registered under their reserved day, and which had previously passed before the Law Commission, was currently being examined. The Renaissance president of the commission Sacha Houlié replied that a suspension would take place later. “What is that?”, “intolerable” stormed Ugo Bernalicis.
As an AFP journalist observed on site, the scene plunged the committee into a rare cacophony, between noisy questions and invectives from deputies. A video filmed by someone inside the commission was also posted on social media. At the end of the session, Sacha Houlié warned that he would ask for “sanctions”. He “seriously disrupted the Law Committee, threatened his colleagues and insulted them. Thanks to Yaël Braun-Pivet for the immediate sanction (…) while waiting for the Bureau meeting”, greeted Sacha Houlié on Friday on the social network
A regular speaker for his group on sovereign and judicial issues, Ugo Bernalicis is a fan of rhetorical confrontations, in committee as well as in the hemicycle, notably with Sacha Houlié or the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Among the most active deputies on social networks, he had already been sanctioned for having broadcast broadcasts on Twitch live from the hemicycle. On Thursday, he announced that he would himself request sanctions against Sacha Houlié.
“When the wise man shows 49.3, the fool looks at Ugo Bernalicis”
Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) had described Ugo Bernalicis as “threatening” towards her on Thursday. “I remained standing in my place,” the latter insisted to AFP, refuting any threat. The RN vice-president of the Assembly Sébastien Chenu had also requested a sanction, denouncing “intolerable and unworthy” behavior. “The tone has risen,” explained LFI MP Clémence Guetté on Franceinfo, specifying however that “there was no physical violence” and calling for “de-dramatization”.
“When the wise man shows the 49.3, the idiot looks at Ugo Bernalicis,” said environmentalist deputy Aurélien Taché on Elisabeth Borne, on the Social Security budget. This “call to order with entry in the minutes” in parliamentary jargon is the strongest sanction that the President of the Assembly can inflict herself.
The presidency press release, however, emphasizes that the Assembly office may propose a heavier sanction at its next meeting on December 13. This body, which includes in particular the vice-presidents, quaestors and secretaries of the institution, has the power to propose two heavier sanctions: “simple censorship” (deprivation of half of the parliamentary allowance for one month), and censorship with temporary exclusion.
This last sanction, the strongest, results in a suspension of half of the compensation for two months, but above all an exclusion from the Palais Bourbon until the 15th following day of session (30th in the event of a repeat offense). The RN deputy Grégoire de Fournas was excluded for 15 days in November 2022 after having launched “let him return to Africa”, during an intervention by the Insoumis Carlos Martens Bilongo on migrants.
LFI deputy Thomas Portes received the same sanction after his refusal to apologize in the chamber for a controversial tweet, which showed him standing on a balloon bearing the image of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt.