Freshly chosen by the majority for the highest functions in the National Assembly, Aurore Bergé and Yaël Braun-Pivet form, with Elisabeth Borne at Matignon, a trio of women in power, such an alignment constituting a first, yet to be tested. .
Although weakened after the legislative elections, Ms. Borne, second woman at the head of a government after Edith Cresson thirty years ago, was “confirmed” on Saturday by Emmanuel Macron “over time”.
Aurore Bergé, she was elected last Wednesday at 35 years old president of the Renaissance deputies (ex-LREM). It was the first time under the Fifth Republic that a woman became the patroness of the majority group in the Assembly.
Another first: the presidency of the institution must return Tuesday to a woman also, Yaël Braun-Pivet, via a vote of all the deputies. She will succeed Richard Ferrand, a close friend of Emmanuel Macron defeated at the polls.
A novice in politics in 2017 and bombarded then president of the Law Commission at the Palais Bourbon, the 51-year-old elected official only remained Minister of Overseas for a month. She left the government this weekend with a view to the perch.
Re-elected deputy for Yvelines on June 19, she took advantage of a window of opportunity to present herself on Wednesday for an internal primary for the presidency of the Assembly, winning over another ex-chairman of the LREM commission, Roland Lescure.
An observer of the two polls notes within the majority “a real momentum” quite irrepressible in favor of women, in a Palais Bourbon which in 2016 hosted for the first time a statue of a female historical figure, in the middle of figures of men and allegories. This is a bust of Olympe de Gouges, a feminist guillotined during the Terror.
Laurence Rossignol, former Socialist Minister for Women’s Rights, takes up Simone de Beauvoir: “So a crisis will suffice… for women to be allowed to go up in the fire”.
For the outgoing MP for the majority Valérie Petit also, it is the “Glass Cliff Effect” or “glass cliff” effect, or “the overrepresentation of women in positions of power in times of acute crisis”. “Those who are usually unaware of their talent say to themselves We tried everything, let’s do something we never imagined: let’s nominate a woman”, she noted on Twitter.
These victories also look like revenge on the incompetence trials or the prevailing sexism in the Assembly. “Some deputies were able to tell me Do not be your school teacher, or Thank you for your almost maternal reflections”, reported in 2019 in Elle Mrs. Braun-Pivet, a lawyer by profession and mother of a large family.
The feminization of the Assembly, with a record of some 39% of female deputies in 2017, has however had “many effects”, she noted to AFP a few weeks ago. “De facto, certain sexist behaviors have disappeared and women are speaking out more.”
However, the proportion of female deputies fell slightly with the last legislative elections, dropping to 37%.
“The fault both with the RN which presented many women in constituencies lost in advance, and with LR whose feminism has never been the cup of tea”, points out to AFP the political scientist Mariette Sineau, co – author of “Women and the Republic”. And the thrust of LFI, which had invested slightly more women than men, “was not enough” to reverse the trend.
“This decline in the number of women in the Assembly hurts,” says researcher Marlène Coulomb-Gully. According to this specialist in gender issues, “something must change radically if we want to make political engagement desirable for women”, in particular working hours.
However, she hopes that “the agenda, the priority of the type of questions” – “care”, childhood, the elderly, rather than the sovereign – can “be influenced by an assembly where the number of women is relatively high even if it is falling, and where women hold decision-making positions”.
Two other women chair opposition groups, Mathilde Panot (LFI) and Marine Le Pen (RN). Cyrielle Chatelain co-directs the environmental group. The majority hope to achieve parity this week in other key positions at the Palais Bourbon.
06/27/2022 14:08:17 – Paris (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
