By keeping his key position in the National Assembly, the deputy, who joined the Macronist party, rekindled the quarrel with his ex-comrades Les Républicains.
Did you like the first season of the war of rights in the Assembly? You will love the last episode. Here are the deputies Les Républicains and their best enemy, Thierry Solère, back in the ring, again and again for the post of quaestor occupied by the latter. And in the role of the forced arbiters of this new round: the LREM group and the President of the National Assembly, François de Rugy, who takes the matter seriously to the point of spending his day on Monday consulting the group presidents to settle the psychodrama.
In question: the accession, this weekend, of Solère to La République en Marche (LREM). Except that, elected to the questure in June, he does not intend to let go of his cheese. Furious, the LR deputies shout at the trampling of the rights of the opposition, the three quaestors (Florian Bachelier, Laurianne Rossi and Thierry Solère) now being macronists. A first under the Ve Republic: as a guarantee of transparency, a member of the opposition traditionally sits within this very strategic trio. The quaestors draw up the budget, commit expenditure and manage the staff and material resources of the Palais-Bourbon. For the opposition, there is no question of leaving the financial keys to the house in the sole hands of the majority.
Already in June, the election by his peers of the "constructive" deputy to the questure had turned the Assembly upside down. While LR had chosen Eric Ciotti as a candidate, Thierry Solère had joined the ranks at the last minute and had beaten his rival to the post, arousing the wrath of his ex-comrades. With its 100 deputies, the first opposition group considered that the position fell to it naturally and, in protest, had temporarily withdrawn its two vice-presidents. Solère had retorted that the Constructives, having declared themselves "opposition group", he had the right to get this job.
"Pluralistic Distribution"
By joining the majority, Solère puts a coin in the machine. And changes, in passing, of argument. “The post of questor does not belong to political parties. It is the deputies who carry out the elections”, he argued on Sunday on BFM TV, recalling that his position will be up for grabs at the start of the next session... in October 2018. According to him, the Assembly's rules provide that “in the distribution (of key positions), we try to ensure a pluralistic distribution and to respect parity. But, by nature, it is an election”. Indeed, it is written in the regulations that “the election of vice-presidents, quaestors and secretaries takes place by endeavoring to reproduce within the office the political configuration of the Assembly and to respect parity”. But it is also specified that “one of the questor's posts is reserved for a deputy belonging to a group that has declared itself to be in opposition”. To solve the first crisis, François de Rugy made clear in October the conditions of attribution of the responsibilities between the groups. If he cannot force Solère to resign, the President of the Assembly urged him to do so on Monday evening on BFM TV on behalf of the "respect for pluralism" : "The interest of the National Assembly would be for him to abandon the questure."
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Very rebound, the right does not intend to let this new affront pass. “Transpartisan management is essential. We are talking about a house with a budget of half a billion euros, the situation is even more abnormal today than yesterday”, warns Annie Genevard, vice-president (LR) of the Assembly. The defector deputy has not yet formally asked the LREM group to welcome him and must speak to the Constructives on Tuesday morning during their weekly meeting. Several LREM deputies themselves consider the hegemony of the majority problematic. For Francois-Michel Lambert, “Solere's attitude is a disaster. The French do not understand that he clings and will think that all the deputies are going to the bowl ”. “We need to have this debate internally, argues spokesperson Aurore Bergé. It is an important position, it is the management of our finances in particular, and we have embarked on an extremely important package of reforms.
On the menu of the conference of group presidents around Rugy, Tuesday, the subject will also be discussed at a meeting of LREM deputies. But Solère, as long as he does not renounce his questure, does not seem to be awaited with open arms.
Source: © Having become a "walker", Solère clings to the questure
