First woman president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, a novice in politics five years ago, had a slow start during the Benalla affair and then knew how to make allies, a necessity in the cauldron of the new Assembly. Immediately after her election, the 51-year-old elected from Yvelines promised to be “the demanding guarantor” of “dialogue” in the Assembly, which will be “the foundation on which we can build consensus, compromises”, while the macronists are no longer the majority on their own.
To climb to the Perchoir, and play this new role at the crossroads of the majority and the opposition, she left the government on Saturday, after only a month and five days at the Ministry of Overseas, to the chagrin of elected officials from these territories. . In five years of chairing the Law Commission, she has become a key figure at the Palais Bourbon. “I held the bar in the face of crises, from terrorism to the pandemic”, subjects of his commission, she argues. And to praise her “new method of working, made of listening” and “co-construction” including with the oppositions of which she was able to make herself appreciated. Women “must succeed in politics without imitating or adapting to a male model”, judges Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Now faced with elected RN and LFI in force, “we need someone stable and experienced, with a sense of repartee”, notes a minister who supports her. This descendant of “Slavic, Polish-Jewish and German-Jewish immigration, with grandparents who entered France on tourist visas” in the 1930s, says her family “owes everything to the Republic.” His mother, a child of the Ddass, “taught him that you should never follow the path that others have traced for you”.
Former criminal lawyer, this native of Nancy, “first among her family to complete higher education”, had put her “vocation” on hold to follow her husband, an executive at L’Oréal, seven years in Taiwan and Japan, and raise their five children. Back, she will invest in the Restos du Coeur, creating free consultations with lawyers and a reception center in the Yvelines.
His membership of En Marche – after having “always voted PS” – is an “extension”: “In action without remaining on postures”. His first steps earned him a trial “in amateurism” from the opposition but also from elected representatives of the majority. She then left her mark with collective field visits, in particular to around thirty penitentiary establishments.
In the summer of 2018, it’s a cold shower: the commission of inquiry into the former collaborator of President Alexandre Benalla, of which she is co-rapporteur, explodes after the withdrawal of the opposition. Several deputies accuse Yaël Braun-Pivet of “protecting” the Élysée, the rebel Alexis Corbière calling it “Benalla of the National Assembly”. Target of anti-Semitic threats and sexist insults on social networks, Yaël Braun-Pivet will say a few months later that his “position was untenable from the start”.
If her human qualities – “warm”, “not twisted” – are praised, she is sometimes criticized for being too “nice”. “It’s not my thing to be boring and bossy,” replies Yaël Braun-Pivet. Stubborn, Yaël Braun-Pivet made a strong commitment last year in favor of Olivier Falorni’s bill authorizing euthanasia. It also sought to move forward in the renovation of democratic life.
The deputy did not hide her ambitions in Macronie, presenting herself in 2018 for the Perchoir before withdrawing her candidacy against Richard Ferrand who, she had however said, “does not embody renewal”. “She is taking her revenge,” slips a government source, as Richard Ferrand was beaten at the polls.
Her rejection in 2018 of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the preamble to the Constitution caught up with her over the weekend, after the questioning of the right to abortion in the United States. “There is no need to brandish fears” in France, she assured then.
His words were widely relayed by LFI, while the majority has just proposed a revision of the Basic Law. The right to abortion “has been conquered” and “my conviction as a woman today in view of the circumstances is that we must collectively ensure that it remains so forever”, assured Tuesday from the Perchoir Yaël Braun- Pivet, in a plea speech in favor of gender equality.
