A deputy in the hemicycle (illustrative image).

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NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

In the National Assembly, respect for barrier gestures leaves much to be desired, according to the inter-union of parliamentary collaborators, which this Monday denounces practices that “endanger” the health of people at the Palais-Bourbon.

"The National Assembly is a very special area in times of pandemic: women and men from all over the country meet and leave several times a week in their territories, which makes it a place of high health risk", underlined the inter-union of employees in a letter to President Richard Ferrand (LREM), of which AFP has had a copy.

Tension around a reception

However, “we have observed several practices within the National Assembly which may have endangered all those who work within its walls,” she continues.

The inter-union mentions a reception organized last Wednesday after the homage to Jacques Chirac, in which “at least a hundred people" agglutinated "without respecting the health measures called" barriers "of distance".

And the same day, a joint hearing in several committees “saw the deputies piling up, sometimes without a mask, in a room located in the basements of the Palais-Bourbon”.

“It is this same type of room that made the National Assembly one of the very first clusters last March, just before confinement,” recalls the inter-union.

Several serious cases were then identified.

Curtain on the refreshment bar at 10 p.m.

The Quaestors, responsible for managing the Assembly, on Friday enhanced the health protection measures in force, by closing the deputies' refreshment bar at 10 p.m., the sports halls, and by recommending videoconferences.

For PCF deputy Sébastien Jumel, there is "no question of protecting deputies more than the rest of France".

"Measures have been taken" and we should not "put democracy under cover", also advocates Boris Vallaud (PS).

Pierre-Yves Bournazel (Agir ensemble) expresses “extreme vigilance” and “a lot of prevention upstream in a period which is very complicated”.

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