the crucial stage of the joint committee before returning to the Assembly

New test day for the Prime Minister on Wednesday. Will the 14 deputies and senators meeting in a joint committee unite to pass the Social Security budget?

There Joint Joint CommissionCMP for short, is a bit like the “black box” of Parliament. It is a closed meeting, supposed to make it possible to find consensus on laws, when the Assembly and the Senate do not agree. Wednesday, November 27, seven deputies and seven senators meet, each camp represented in proportion to its political weight, to decide the fate of the Social Security budget. The government is absent.

Most elected officials generally describe a “hyperstudious atmosphere”a place where “everyone listens to each other”. Moreover, an elected RN who officially criticizes the principle of closed doors, admits it off the record: “It allows for a dispassionate, less theatrical debate”.

To reach an agreement between deputies and senators, “the bulk of the work is done” in the days preceding, explains a regular. The rapporteurs of the text, on the Senate and Assembly sides, “identify the dividing points and negotiate between them, in partnership with ministerial cabinets”he says. So when the meeting begins, each parliamentarian finds a file with joint rewriting proposals.

For the oppositions, it’s rather frustrating. “Everything is settled in advance”denounces an elected official who remembers “of an expeditious CMP” of 10 minutes, where he was barely able to speak. Other times, it’s much longer: 8 hours for pension reform.

Then, the proceedings almost resemble a parliamentary session. Parliamentarians vote, article by article. When things get stuck, we discuss the formulations, either in front of everyone, or in frequent meetings. “Rightly close groups ask for suspensions and will discuss in the corridor,” says an RN deputy. A Macronist confirms: “There are “negotiations”, phone calls to the presidents of the groups or to the ministries, to check if a “move” can be suitable. It is not always a long, smooth river !” And the tone sometimes rises. Several elected officials qualify as “violent” the CMP on the latest immigration text. “Bruno Retailleau and Éric Ciotti had decided that they were going to write “their” law. It fell apart “, we are told.

For the coming weeks, there is one important rule: “the turnstile”. As in a merry-go-round, one of the seats rotates between the Horizons, MoDem and environmentalist deputies, present in turn. Indeed, given the result of the legislative elections – a national representation without a real majority and fragmented into 11 groups – it was decided that one of the seven incumbent seats will be rotated between these three groups. On Wednesday afternoon, Horizons will be present, which gives a majority of 8 votes – out of 14 – to what is called the “common base”. Whereas there is a tie at 7 everywhere when it is the environmentalist representative who is there.

The oppositions suspect the government of arranging the order of laws to obtain a more favorable configuration on budgetary texts. “They are used to twisting procedures”comments a left-wing elected official.