Paris (AFP)
The fact-finding mission of the National Assembly on the management of the coronavirus epidemic should be chaired by Richard Ferrand (LREM) and will monitor weekly the measures taken by the government, we learned on Tuesday from a parliamentary source .
This mission, acted Tuesday at a conference of the presidents of the Assembly, could similarly acquire the prerogatives of a commission of inquiry.
The leader of the LR deputies, Damien Abad, had asked Sunday to go further, announcing a parliamentary commission of inquiry initiated by his group in the fall to "learn all the lessons of the epidemic". But the president of the Assembly Richard Ferrand had replied that the institution should "seize in a pluralistic way - it does not belong to any group - whatever set of devices implemented" in the face of the coronavirus .
The mission, of which the presidents of all the political groups will be members and which is due to start next week, will firstly check each week the measures taken in the framework of the state of health emergency. Then, "it will be able to carry out a more traditional evaluation work in order to draw lessons from this crisis by making all the recommendations it deems useful", added a parliamentary source.
According to Gilles Le Gendre, patron of LREM deputies, this assessment will be "all-round, on all aspects", from "piloting the crisis" to "relocations", linked "to the shortage" in protective masks, via "health policies to prevent epidemics".
This work will not be done "with a view to the prosecution, neither against this majority, nor against the previous one," he stressed during a telephone press conference.
The mission "will, because of its cross-cutting nature, unify all parliamentary control over the crisis", we concluded from a parliamentary source.
Parliament passed the "emergency to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic" bill on Sunday, paving the way for a state of health emergency. France officially entered this new regime on Tuesday, which regulates confinement and other measures restricting freedoms.
The National Assembly has on its agenda this week only a session of topical questions to the government, Tuesday afternoon, just like the Senate on Wednesday, given the health restrictions and the concentration of action. on crisis management.
© 2020 AFP