• Tweeter

  • republish

Gilles Le Gendre applauded by his peers during the question session in the government, at the National Assembly, in Paris, on September 18, 2018. REUTERS / Charles Platiau

Gilles Le Gendre, 60, was elected new president of the LREM group in the National Assembly on Tuesday (September 18th). The deputy from Paris won the second round of the internal poll with 157 votes, against 107 for another man, Roland Lescure, deputy of the first constituency of the French from abroad. The three women candidates were eliminated in the first round.

" We are absolutely united now to move forward, to support the reform program of the President of the Republic and the government, " told the press after the vote Gilles Le Gendre. Before his election on Tuesday, the deputy of Paris was one of the vice-presidents and one of the spokespersons for the group La République en marche.

Applauded by members of his group during questions to the government, chaired for the first time by Richard Ferrand, the new elected has touted government measures in favor of " social justice ."

Confident Liberal and former fan of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, close to Richard Ferrand - who himself became president of the National Assembly - entered politics in mid-2016, after having been an economic journalist, and then created several companies of advice.

Women swept in the first round

In the first round, in the morning, the three women in the race, Amélie de Montchalin (LREM leader of the Finance Committee), Laetitia Avia (spokesperson of the LREM movement) and Brigitte Bourguignon (figure of the left wing ) had respectively 45, 32 and 19 votes. Two other candidates, Jean-Charles Colas-Roy and Rémy Rebeyrotte, had 17 and 8 votes.

Relatively low scores in the speeches of various elected officials, who declared themselves in favor of the victory of a woman in this position, after the failure of Barbara Pompili and Cendra Motin against Richard Ferrand for the perch.

Valérie Rabault (PS), the only woman to chair a political group in the Assembly, regretted an election that "tends to accredit the idea " of a glass ceiling for women when " we discuss topics very political .

Gather and remobilize the majority MPs

Far from these considerations, the new boss of the LREM group should focus on the cohesion of his troops and on the cooperation between the elected on the march and their allies, including the Modem. " Gilles Le Gendre was in the front row with Richard Ferrand, he knows better than anyone what must change, " wants to believe in this regard one of his colleagues.

The presidential majority is indeed facing his first dissensions, as evidenced by the 58 votes LREM who missed Richard Ferrand during his election as President of the National Assembly.

The deputies In March also lived their second defection this weekend, after that of Jean-Michel Clément, elected from Vienna, in April. Frédérique Dumas, MP from Hauts-de-Seine, joins the group UDI, Agir et Indépendants. A return to basics for this former centrist, who denounces a lack of listening from the executive and a desire to prevent any discordant voice in the parliamentary group LREM.

(With agencies)