“Shananigans”, “lack of civility”… what happened during the controversial nuclear power vote in the Assembly?

A tense atmosphere and a recount that changes everything. At a National Assembly committee meeting on Tuesday, MPs rejected a key piece of nuclear safety reform that would see the ASN, a nuclear police body, merged with the IRSN, an industry expert. A new failure of the government in this controversial reform, already rejected a year ago after the opposition coalition in the hemisphere.

However, this first article of the bill could have met a completely different fate on Tuesday. La France insoumise (LFI) deputy Clémence Guette, who was present at the committee meeting, published on X on Wednesday a video filmed by the Assembly cameras. It shows the president of the committee for sustainable development, Jean-Marc Zulezi (Renaissance), counting the votes: those who are for this amendment to remove the article of the law, and those who are against. The video broadcast by the elected official, which lasts just over two minutes and has been viewed several million times on social media, can be seen in its entirety on the National Assembly website.

This vote is by show of hands. The deputy finishes the counting and announces the final result: 20 votes for, 20 against. “Rejected,” Jean-Marc Zulezi quickly concludes. But the first complaints appear. “There is doubt in the room,” said LFI commission president-elect Anne Stambach-Terrenoir. I think it doesn’t cost anything to redo the voting, it’s too important. “A categorical refusal from Jean-Marc Zulezy: “There is no doubt, we continue. »

LFI deputies condemn “fraud”

But rebel elected officials, convinced there was a vote-counting error, want to find out for sure and are demanding a ballot measure. Clémence Guette then puts forward Article 44 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. “Voting by ballot is legal if it is requested either by at least one tenth of the members of the committee, or by a member of the committee if it is a personal nomination,” we read in paragraph 2 of the article. The first condition is met and a nominal vote is held.

Jean-Marc Zulezi then calls each member of the commission and asks them to vote again. And the end result is different from the first. “23 votes in favor, 21 against, the expulsion amendment passed,” the commission president finally announces, to the applause of some elected officials.

More people during the second vote?

Like Clémence Guette, other MPs from La France insoumise condemned the “machinations” by Macronist elected officials. In a conversation with Le Parisien, Jean-Marc Zulezi defends himself and claims that many deputies voluntarily disrupted the vote count by not raising their hands.

“Then I fell into a trap,” the commission president regrets. “They asked to suspend the session, brought people and agreed with the National Association. You can enter and leave the commission almost whenever you want, which may explain the larger number of voters in the second round of voting,” he explains.

Deputies who supported the amendment to exclude this article won the vote by a margin of one vote. Jean-Marc Zulezi condemns the “strategies” of elected officials La France insoumise and “(With) “I am surprised by the lack of republican citizenship of Madam Deputy Clémence Goette.”