Yaël Braun-Pivet awakens the specter of the Benalla commission with its decision on the PPL Liot

POLICY – “The work was prevented”. The sentence dates from August 1, 2018, in the middle of the Benalla affair. Guillaume Larrivé, LR co-rapporteur of the commission of inquiry into the Benalla affair, fulminates against Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the Law Commission. Five years later, she became president of the National Assembly and faces the same remonstrances after her decision to prevent discussions in session on the LIOT text repealing the pension reform, “ in the name of the Constitution ».

On July 23, 2018, the Law Commission of the National Assembly became a commission of inquiry. Its objective: to determine the responsibilities – in particular political – in the case which involves the former bodyguard of Emmanuel Macron who became an adviser to the President and caught in the act of violence during a demonstration on May 1. Supposed to last a month, it ends after… four days. Co-rapporteur LR Guillaume Larrivé slams the door by denouncing a “parody”, followed by all the opposition elected representatives.

On August 1, the commission gives birth toa report (and not from a report as usual) where the same Larrivé points to the refusal of Yaël Braun-Pivet, supported by the majority, to audition “officials from the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of the Interior and the La République en Marche party”. Understand: Alexis Kholer, the secretary general of the Élysée and Christophe Castaner, then Minister of the Interior.

Braun-Pivet and the refuge of the law

These criticisms, Yaël Braun-Pivet sweeps them away with the reverse of the law. “I recall that legal proceedings are in progress and that parliamentary debates have never been intended to encroach on the powers which are those of the judicial authority. (…) This is a limit of our investigation, even if some would have liked to cross it »she defends herself on August 1, 2018 in front of her peers.

Five years later, while it is question this time of the admissibility of a text of law, its strategy did not vary. Article 1 of the LIOT bill to repeal the pension reform and the amendments tabled to put it back on the agenda on June 8 should not be discussed in session because they are not “not in accordance with the Constitution” in view of the impact on public finances, she asserts this Wednesday on BFMTV.

The President of the National Assembly is firm. However, a few weeks earlier, she assured that she did not want to convene a new office of the Assembly to study again the admissibility of the text: “ She does not want the National Assembly to be trampled on,” said his team at Monde May 24. But in 15 days, the pressure has increased on the deputy of Yvelines.

“She has a phew pressure on her” – A rising figure among the elected Renaissance

At the end of May, a rising figure from the Renaissance group summed it up in these terms: “She’s got tremendous pressure on her. And that’s normal, we all participate. She’s the one with the key, so she doesn’t really have a choice. Because if the PPL were voted in the hemicycle, it would send a terrible political signal. It would put a coin back in the pig and block everything else. »

For the left, we are a cut above » by Benalla

The pressure of his colleagues, Yaël Braun-Pivet knows. In 2018 already, the oppositions are annoyed by his decisions which they consider dictated by his hierarchy. “Why did you weigh as you did on the shoulders of the President of the Law Commission to interrupt a process in search of truth requested by the French? », thus claimed the deputy David Habib (PS) to Gilles Le Gendre, then president of the LREM group in the Assembly, on LCP on February 4, 2019.

Since 2018, Yaël Braun-Pivet has taken the lead. Ephemeral Minister of Overseas, she became in June 2022 the first woman to preside over the National Assembly. But the Benalla case follows her.

Witness, during his election to the Perchoir, this acerbic reaction of the leader France Insoumise Mathilde Panot. “The Assembly is now chaired by Yaël Braun-Pivet, the same who buried the parliamentary commission on the Benalla affair. Symbol of an Assembly from another time, entirely subject to the executive. » A year later, she does not deny her words. ” It is the government that is in charge, the separation of powers does not exist., she criticizes in front of journalists on June 1, the day after the Social Affairs Committee where the PPL Liot is deprived of its essential article. The criticisms of the oppositions in 2023 echo those of 2018, as shown in the video at the top of the article, with the same reproach: that “to hinder democracy”.

“Yaël Braun-Pivet has just missed the march to the Élysée”

Not everyone shares this opinion. One of the LR actors in the Benalla commission refutes any comparison. ” This has nothing to do with. Yaël Braun-Pivet applies the Constitution. She is in her role. Under the Ve, it is not up to a minority group to dictate the tempo. » On the socialist side, we also hesitate to put on the same level the Braun-Pivet of then and that of today, but the reason is quite different: “It’s the same actress, but the difference with Benalla is that there was a commission of inquiry in the Senate. There, we are a cut above. Yaël Braun-Pivet is just a pawn in a government practice that is not going well”.

« We had no pressure “, we say in the entourage of Yaël Braun-Pivet who denies doing politics and says to stick “ to the rules of our Assembly ». « It is out of the question for her to bend the rules. One shot costs the majority, one shot the opposition, but that’s the line they set themselves ».

“She is weak. She could gain 10 points in the polls and be the new star”, laughs an adviser from the LIOT group, not far from predicting the political end of the deputy of Yvelines to whom we lend ambitions at the top. A Renaissance deputy takes the plunge: “She went to bed and did not resist the pressure, it’s a shame. Yaël Braun-Pivet has just missed the march to the Élysée. »

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