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It’s a recurring issue: should deputies and senators hold only one mandate? During the presidential campaign, François Hollande committed to enforcing the non-cumulation of mandates: a law was to be quickly introduced, to come into effect in 2014, after the next series of local elections.
Except in reality, deputies (and senators, for that matter) are far, very far from wanting to give up one or more mandates. It’s worth mentioning that 82% of them hold multiple mandates – for comparison, it’s 10% in Germany and 15% in Italy.
The law limits the cumulation of mandates (for example, no more than one local mandate for a deputy), but does not prohibit it.
On July 3, Jean-Marc Ayrault specified, in his general policy speech, that “it will be put an end (…) to the cumulation between a parliamentary mandate and the exercise of local executive functions.” The Prime Minister specified that this provision will be “applicable in 2014,” the year of the municipal elections.
On Friday, at the La Rochelle summer university, Martine Aubry, head of the PS, urged elected officials to comply with the non-cumulation rule for parliamentarians, reminding them that they have “one month” to do so.
Indeed, in 2010, such a rule was voted by 70% of PS militants requiring any parliamentarian to leave any local executive mandate within three months of their election. Senators have been granted reprieve until the fall of 2012.
Martine Aubry, First Secretary of the PS, once again called on every socialist parliamentarian to “resign no later than September from their local executive mandate,” in a letter sent to deputies and senators this Tuesday and presented Tuesday evening at the PS national bureau.
“The national bureau wished to invite every concerned parliamentarian to respect the commitment they made at their nomination [for senatorial or legislative elections] and to resign no later than September 2012 from their local executive mandate [municipal, departmental or regional],” wrote Ms. Aubry
She adds that the adoption of a non-cumulation law, planned by François Hollande and announced by Jean-Marc Ayrault for 2014, “should not exempt socialists from fulfilling their commitment and being exemplary.”
Among the 207 with multiple mandates – out of the 297 deputies in the socialist group of the National Assembly, 146 hold a local mandate, 49 have two, and 12 have three, according to the count published by Le Monde. Since the June legislative elections, 45 have given up one or even two of their other mandates.
But this measure also causes discontent… among the left-wing holders of multiple mandates.
François Rebsamen, president of the PS group in the Senate, expressed his opposition to the non-cumulation rule for senators.
Questioned by RMC about the end of cumulation, the senator-mayor of Dijon declared: “I made a commitment to the voters, I was elected for six years, until 2014 I will be senator and mayor.” “It will be done,” but “I advocate for a special situation for the Senate, which is elected by the grand electors.”
François Rebsamen is the spokesperson for those who fear a gap between local and national elected officials.
However, others argue that non-cumulation is also a factor for generational and possibly sociological renewal that allows democratic vitality and the opening of political life to young people and women.
Martine Aubry’s stance writes the final word to a situation where everyone was turning a blind eye, adapting to the status quo, and buying time.
The events that follow will tell if a mediation between the strictness of the principle and a more flexible application will be possible. Otherwise, how many cases of ‘mutiny’ will have to be recorded?
This issue may create additional nervousness in the government’s activities, which already face numerous challenges and will need full support from its parliamentary majority to implement its policies.
On the other hand, opposition parliamentarians cannot overly relish the situation of their socialist colleagues: what some do cannot be ignored by others.
It should be noted that all opinion polls are consistent and unanimous: non-cumulation of mandates is considered one of the priorities for political reform, akin to an act of public hygiene!
And for the Nice region, it would be a small revolution given how widespread the practice is: Who doesn’t hold multiple mandates?
Autumn might overheat…
