Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will respond “personally” to deputies during the government question sessions on Wednesday, on an experimental basis from April 3 and for five sessions, we learned from parliamentary sources on Tuesday. This experiment, to which Gabriel Attal was favorable, was decided on Tuesday following a meeting of the heads of political groups in the Assembly, around the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet.
“Reaffirm” the place of questions to the government “among the highlights of parliamentary life”
“These developments will come into force from Wednesday April 3 for a duration of 5 sessions, i.e. until Wednesday May 29 inclusive,” according to a press release from the presidency. This new formula is “part of the ongoing discussions” to “energize” the question sessions to the government (QAG). Yaël Braun-Pivet wants to “reaffirm” the place of QAGs “among the highlights of parliamentary life”, while these filmed sessions are experiencing growing disinterest from both MPs and the public.
With this same objective, a first experiment has been underway since the end of November until the end of June, with two sessions, on Tuesday (1h15) and Wednesday (45 mins), instead of just one, longer, lasting two hours. Tuesday. According to several sources, a majority of political groups opposed the face-to-face with Gabriel Attal: the environmentalist, socialist, rebellious and communist groups were against, as were Horizons and the MoDem, members of the majority.
The four favorable groups (Renaissance, Les Républicains, Rassemblement national and Liot), however, represented more deputies than the other six. “It was hotter than expected,” a parliamentary source told AFP after the meeting of group leaders. The President of the Assembly “put a lot of weight behind the experimentation,” said a source close to her, explaining that a compromise had been found by proposing an experiment lasting five sessions. The Horizons group was reluctant in the name of “a risk of desecrating the Prime Minister’s words, if he is required to answer all the questions week after week”. But he welcomed the fact that the formula is being tested experimentally.
QAGs allow MPs from all sides to ask questions of the government, and get answers, in front of the cameras. In their traditional form, only group leaders can address the Prime Minister directly. This face-to-face meeting with the Prime Minister is inspired by the practice in the United Kingdom, in the House of Commons.