New change in format for questions to the government (QAG) in the National Assembly.
From April 3, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will respond
“personally”
to questions from parliamentarians during the
Wednesday
“QAG” sessions.
An experiment decided this Tuesday by the conference of group presidents,
“for a duration of five sessions, i.e. until Wednesday May 29 inclusive”
, according to a press release from the presidency.
Until now, the custom was for the Prime Minister to only answer questions from the group presidents, leaving the members of the government to respond to the other deputies.
In February, Gabriel Attal was in favor of this change, arguing that he was
“not the type to hide behind his ministers”.
A rare media moment for parliamentary work, the “QAG” format had already been modified in November, in order to revitalize an exercise considered boring for viewers (and by the deputies themselves).
To stem this problem, a first experiment has already been underway since the end of November, transforming the single Tuesday session (lasting two hours) into two sessions, Tuesday (1 hour 15 minutes) and Wednesday (45 minutes).
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), on the other hand, represented more deputies.
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 desacralization of 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.