Electric atmosphere between the majority and the opposition.
While Prime Minister Jean Castex on Wednesday expressed his willingness to consult the parliamentary groups before deciding on new restrictive measures to stem the spread of the virus, it is a new controversy that is crossing the benches of the Assembly national in the evening.
The fact-finding mission on the Covid-19 crisis has just ended on Wednesday, despite the protests of the oppositions: "Totally surreal democratic shipwreck" protests the boss of deputies LR Damien Abad, "denial", shouts Boris Vallaud (PS).
On Twitter, the LR rapporteur of the mission, Eric Ciotti, denounces "an institutional coup and a solitary drift in the management of the crisis".
The majority dissolves the fact-finding mission on # Covid_19.
Through an institutional coup, En Marche chose to sit on the control of the action of the executive.
It's a real scandal!
- Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) January 27, 2021
Contacted by Le Parisien, the First Secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure does not hide his anger.
He denounces a "democratic betrayal".
For him, “power is in full illiberal drift.
The country is in a permanent state of emergency, the government is legislating through ordinances.
The Defense Council, whose composition is unknown to anyone, replaced the Council of Ministers and now the parliamentary mission to monitor the Covid crisis is arbitrarily dissolved, depriving parliament of its power of control.
In a press release, the Socialist group in the Assembly called on the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, to act for the restoration of the mission.
The standing committees will ensure control
The former Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, now leader of LREM deputies in the lower house, took charge of the reply.
“It is the usual cinema of the oppositions, who have often used this commission as a political scene.
Commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions are temporary, that's parliamentary life, ”he denounces, before going with a touch of irony.
“There is no doubt that after 14 years in the Assembly, Eric Ciotti knows it better than anyone”.
The majority justifies this disappearance by the fact that the Assembly's standing committees are monitoring the management of the crisis.
With the Figaro, the deputy of the majority Julien Borowczyk, who chaired the commission of inquiry, recalls that "the last hearing of Olivier Véran on the subject took place before the commission of social affairs a few days ago, on the vaccination strategy ”.
"The standing committees will of course allow the control of government action by parliament", he assures us.
The fact-finding mission has lost its status as a parliamentary commission of inquiry since it issued its findings in a report released in early December.
His powers had only been entrusted to him for six months.
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In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Socialist deputies in the National Assembly and in the Senate, Valérie Rabault and Patrick Kanner, also asked Jean Castex for new explanations on France's vaccine strategy.
They want the Parliament to be able to consult the contracts negotiated by the European Commission on behalf of the Member States and want to know “the exact financing scheme for the purchase of vaccine doses” between European contribution and French contribution.