It only took him a month to get the hang of it. Hand resting on the microphone, the other in his pocket, the communist senator of Paris, Ian Brossat, calls out without notes the benches of the right: "Stop reasoning as if France were a miserable country. To have a little pride in our country is to accept the fact that we are proud to welcome international students!" In the midst of the debate on the immigration bill, the intervention raises a few eyebrows. "I didn't come here to be an extra. Remaining silent bothers me," said the former spokesman for the French Communist Party, who had tabled some fifty amendments to the text.
Like him, a handful of new senators, elected last September, had their baptism of fire this week in the Golden Chamber, projected on one of the most political issues of the new school year. "I couldn't have asked for a better way to start the matter: sitting morning, noon and night on a bill with such importance...
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