The debutants of 2017: revelations, disappointed with Macronism and casting errors

The election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 allowed the arrival in the National Assembly of many deputies new to politics, with contrasting results. In five years, while some have come to light, others have been real casting errors, while many have been disappointed by Macronism. Legislatives 2022 © Studion Graphique FMM With between 15,000 and 20,000 candidates from civil society announced by La République en Marche (LREM) to become one of the 577 candidates of the presidential party in the 2017 legislative elections, the result could only be contrasted. “Within La République en Marche, the deputies who emerged are those who already had experience in politics, whether as an elected representative or as a collaborator”, analyzes the sociologist Étienne Ollion, research director at the CNRS and author of the book “ The candidates” (Puf, 2021).>> To read: The beginners of 2017: “Their inexperience penalized them” Some have however managed to emerge despite their inexperience, becoming essential figures of the presidential majority at the Palais Bourbon. Others, on the other hand, were disappointed by the political orientations of Emmanuel Macron and LREM, to the point of not wanting to renew their mandate in 2022. Finally, several deputies new to politics were real casting errors, making most often talk about them for the wrong reasons. Overview of these different profiles with a few examples. Yaël Braun-Pivet (deputy for Yvelines) His recent appointment as Minister of Overseas Territories in the first government of Elisabeth Borne came to consecrate, at 51, a successful career during the first five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. Elected MP for Yvelines in 2017 after having been a lawyer and volunteer with the association Les Restos du Coeur, Yaël Braun-Pivet was quickly propelled to the head of the law commission. In this position, usually assigned to experienced deputies, she stood out by multiplying the blunders during the first weeks of her term of office. In particular, she confuses the law and the decree and, speaking in committee thinking that her microphone is cut, criticizes the LREM deputies “wallowed” in their chairs. It then symbolizes the incompetence lent to these deputies who have just arrived at the National Assembly. But well supported because of her position as chair of a committee and endowed with a great capacity for work, she quickly made people forget these few missteps and became in the spring of 2018 rapporteur, alongside Marc Fesneau, of the bill constitutional “for a more representative, responsible and effective democracy”, which will ultimately never be voted on. Yaël Braun-Pivet also plays a very political role by chairing the parliamentary commission of inquiry during the Benalla affair. She then refuses to audition the secretary general of the Élysée Alexis Kohler, a very close friend of Emmanuel Macron. But proof of its confidence and its growing thickness, it does not hesitate to oppose the government, at the end of 2020, during the examination of the controversial article 24 of the Global Security Law. Yaël Braun-Pivet is now a candidate for re-election. Jean-Baptiste Moreau (deputy for Creuse) Chosen among the first fourteen candidates presented by En Marche in April 2017, Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a breeder in the Creuse of Limousin cows, symbolizes marvelous this civil society accessing the National Assembly. Within the majority, he quickly established himself as the deputy of the majority specializing in agricultural and food issues. He is thus chairman of the study group on the modernization of agricultural activities and the structuring of supply chains, a member of the steering committee of the Observatory on the formation of prices and margins of food products, rapporteur for the fact-finding mission on the monitoring of the glyphosate exit strategy and, above all, rapporteur for the bill for “the balance of commercial relations in the agricultural sector and healthy and sustainable food” (Egalim). But his greatest success is undoubtedly due to its ability to be heard on other issues. Jean-Baptiste Moreau, 45, has thus managed to become a voice that weighs on subjects such as the legalization of cannabis or secularism. To the point of being appointed in 2019 spokesperson for La République en Marche and of being described in a portrait of the Journal du Dimanche as “heavyweight of the majority”. He is logically a candidate for re-election. Among the revelations, we can also mention: Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (MP for Haute-Vienne then Minister Delegate for Transport), Nadia Hai (MP for Yvelines then Minister Delegate for the City), Caroline Janvier (MP for Loiret). Those disappointed with macronism Matthieu Orphelin (MP for Maine-et-Loire) Former activist for Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) and spokesperson for the Nicolas Hulot Foundation (which has since become a Foundation for Nature and Man) from 2012 in 2015, Matthieu Orphelin was elected MP for Maine-et-Loire in June 2017. Close to the former Minister for Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Nicolas Hulot, he embodies the left wing of La République en Marche which is pushing to go from forward in the fight against global warming. Accustomed to the mysteries of the political world, an outstanding communicator, he quickly established himself as one of the most prominent deputies of the majority. Gradually, he became disenchanted with the policy pursued by the government and ended up leaving the LREM group in February 2019. He then regretted the lack of progress on “climate, ecological and social issues” and affirmed a few months later, to the occasion of the European elections of May 2019 that he cannot vote for the LREM list because of the “too big gap” between the announced program in terms of the environment and the actions of the government. The case of Matthieu Orphelin is far from to be isolated. Of the 314 LREM and related deputies in 2017, 48 left the group during the five-year term. Never had such a hemorrhage within the majority group, which moreover lost the absolute majority in May 2020, taken place under the Fifth Republic. Support for Yannick Jadot in the 2022 presidential election, Matthieu Orphelin, 49, announced in February that he was not a candidate for re-election for a second term as a deputy. Annie Chapelier (deputy of Gard) Less publicized than Matthieu Orphelin, Annie Chapelier, 54, nurse-anesthetist by profession, was and elected deputy of Gard in 2017. In January 2020, she also left the group La République en Marche in January 2020, denouncing “a movement above ground, indifferent to the territories” where “apparatchiks, more or less self-proclaimed petty chiefs” dictate the political line to “a mass, insignificant in their eyes, who are asked for blind allegiance and obedience” . Beyond the political line, Annie Chapelier especially criticizes the role of deputy. She publishes In “A Fake Parliament” published in April 2022, a book in which she denounces the omnipresence of lobbies, the lack of means and the little real power granted to parliamentarians. “We are only here for a decorum, a role play”, she still denounces in an interview on France Inter on May 3. Like Matthieu Orphelin and around 70 deputies elected with the label La République en Marche, Annie Chapelier chose not to return for a new term. Among the disappointed, we can also mention: Jennifer De Temmerman (deputy for the North), Paula Forteza (deputy for French people abroad), Cédric Villani (deputy for Essonne). Joachim Son-Forget (deputy for French nationals abroad) Difficult to do worse. A radiologist in Geneva, Joachim Son-Forget was elected in 2017 as a deputy for the French people living in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. His first year in office went off without a hitch, then came the many slippages. In September 2018, he defended the showman Marcel Campion, accused of having made homophobic remarks, then, in December, attacked Senator Europe Écologie-Les Verts Esther Benbassa on Twitter by attacking her on her physique. Many tweets followed, deemed unworthy of a deputy by the opposition, but also by his colleagues. “No political controversy justifies pouring into sexism and vulgarity”, condemns Gilles Le Gendre, the boss of the group La République en Marche in the Assembly. Joachim Son-Forget explains that he wanted to “create buzz using the principles of cognitive psychology” and ended up resigning from the LREM group at the end of December. The rest of his mandate was nothing but a succession of controversies and provocations. He appears online with assault rifles. In 2019, he got closer to the far right on Twitter with Marion Maréchal, evoking “a budding friendship”. In early 2020, he broadcasts on the same social network the link allowing access to the intimate videos of Benjamin Griveaux, then a candidate for municipal elections in Paris. Then he became a fervent defender of doctor Didier Raoult during the Covid-19 crisis. And ends up supporting Éric Zemmour in the presidential election of 2022. “How boring it is to be a deputy!” parliamentarian as a “little notable [qui] is useless”. However, at 39, here he is a candidate for re-election, but this time without a label. Facing him, the presidential party has invested the economist Marc Ferracci, a very close friend of Emmanuel Macron. Martine Wonner (MP for Bas-Rhin) Without Covid-19, she could have passed for a simple disappointment with the policy led by Emmanuel Macron.Trained psychiatrist, Martine Wonner was elected MP for Bas-Rhin in 2017 and was then part of of the left wing of the presidential majority. She votes against the delay given to the use of glyphosate in 2018, she abstains the same year on the Asylum and Immigration Law, she votes against the ratification of CETA (treaty of free -exchange between the European Union and Canada) in 2019 and is regularly critical of the government and the majority on social issues. But the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020 makes her switch to the side of the conspirators, causing her exclusion of the LREM group. Martine Wonner first distinguished herself in defending Doctor Didier Raoult and campaigning to let city doctors prescribe hydroxychloroquine. Then, in the fall of 2020, she told the National Assembly that wearing a mask “is strictly useless”, appeared in the conspiratorial documentary “Hold-up” and ended up in 2021 targeting anti-Covid vaccines at messenger RNA, which she calls “genetically modified junk” that “doesn’t protect anyone.” In 2022, she also denounced to the National Assembly the “deleterious consequences of the French vaccine policy”, guilty of causing according to her “miscarriages, myocarditis, pericarditis, autoimmune diseases, Guillain-Barré syndromes, multiple cancers , Creutzfeld-Jacob diseases, AIDS” and “death”. In her fight against vax, Martine Wonner does not shrink from any excess: in the spring of 2021, she accuses the government and caregivers of “crimes against humanity” and qualifies them as ” assassins”, then demonstrated the following summer with Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and Florian Philippot, urging the French opposed to anti-Covid vaccines to “besiege parliamentarians” to “invade their permanence”. While she had promised to serve only one term, Martine Wonner, 58, is an unlabeled candidate for re-election. Among the casting errors, we can also mention: Marion Lenne (MP for Haute-Savoie), Claire O’Petit (MP for Eure), Brune Poirson (MP for Vaucluse and Secretary of State to the Minister of Transition ecological and solidarity)