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John Bercow had been in office for ten years, and he was long applauded at a few hours of forced vacation for Parliament, which will be suspended for five weeks.
With our correspondent in London, Muriel Delcroix
After ten years of fiercely defending the voices of the deputies, John Bercow announced, with tears in his eyes, that he was about to bow. In fact, he leaves before being pushed out by his detractors within his own party, the Conservative party.
The speaker is a controversial figure. It has attracted many enmities by revolutionizing the workings of the House of Commons and by giving parliamentarians a lot of power, which, thanks to it, has been able to hold successive governments to account in recent years.
Accused of being pro-European
John Bercow has proved to be a valuable ally for pro-European deputies, opposed to Brexit , making decisions that often went along with them. The President of the House found himself the incessant target of "brexiters" who ended up questioning his impartiality.
A few days ago, his position began to become untenable when the Conservatives decided, breaking with tradition, to run a candidate against him in his riding of Buckingham in the next election.
But in a last whisper to his opponents, the "speaker" decided to leave before the next election, ensuring that his successor will be appointed by the current Parliament, mostly pro-European.