To the opposition, the 51-year-old minister said, after the loss of the absolute majority in the legislative elections: "we will have to work together, we will have to seek majorities of ideas" and "we are all accountable for this action collectively ".

Yaël Braun-Pivet has since changed position, but not mission.

She left the government on Saturday, after only a month and five days at the Ministry of Overseas, which earned her the anger of several elected officials in these territories.

And should, barring an accident, be elected on Tuesday at the perch of the Assembly.

The blonde deputy from Yvelines, president of the Law Commission for five years, has become a key figure at the Palais Bourbon.

"I held the bar in the face of crises, from terrorism to the pandemic", subjects of her commission, she argues.

And to praise her "new method of working, made of listening" and "co-construction" including with the oppositions of which she knew how to be appreciated.

Women "must succeed in politics without imitating or adapting to a male model", judge Yaël Braun-Pivet.

Now facing the elected RN and LFI in force, "you need someone stable and experienced, with a sense of repartee", notes a minister who supports her.

In 2017, the new deputy was chosen for the Law Commission, breaking the tradition of appointing an experienced person.

A former criminal lawyer, this native of Nancy had put her "vocation" on hold to follow her husband, an executive at L'Oréal, seven years in Taiwan and Japan, and raise their five children.

Back, she will invest in the Restos du Coeur, creating free consultations with lawyers and a reception center in the Yvelines.

LREM MP Yaël Braun-Pivet in the National Assembly during a debate on the extension of the state of health emergency, May 7, 2020 in Paris Ludovic MARIN POOL / AFP / Archives

His membership of En Marche - after having "always voted PS" - is an "extension": "in action without remaining on postures".

Not "authoritative"

His first steps earned him a trial "in amateurism" from the opposition but also from elected representatives of the majority.

She then left her mark with collective field visits, in particular to around thirty penitentiary establishments.

In the summer of 2018, it's a cold shower: the commission of inquiry into the former collaborator of President Alexandre Benalla, of which she is co-rapporteur, explodes after the withdrawal of the opposition.

Several deputies accuse Ms. Braun-Pivet of "protecting" the Élysée, the rebellious Alexis Corbière calling her "Benalla of the National Assembly".

Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly's Law Commission, during the Benalla affair, July 26, 2028 in Paris Bertrand GUAY AFP / Archives

Target of anti-Semitic threats and sexist insults on social networks, Yaël Braun-Pivet will say a few months later that his "position was untenable from the start".

If her human qualities - "warm", "not twisted" - are welcomed, she is sometimes criticized for being too "nice".

"It's not my thing to be boring and authoritarian," replies Yaël Braun-Pivet.

This descendant of "Slavic, Polish Jewish and German Jewish immigration, with grandparents who entered France on tourist visas" in the 1930s, prefers internal debates to public arm wrestling.

But an opposition deputy squeals: "She has not demonstrated great lofty sight".

"She brought a lot of freshness, was persevering", admits Xavier Breton (LR).

Stubborn, Yaël Braun-Pivet made a strong commitment last year in favor of Olivier Falorni's bill authorizing euthanasia.

It also sought to move forward in the renovation of democratic life.

The deputy did not hide her ambitions in macronie, presenting herself in 2018 for the perch before withdrawing her candidacy against Richard Ferrand who, she had however said, "does not embody renewal".

"She takes her revenge," slips a government source, while Mr. Ferrand was beaten at the polls.

Her rejection in 2018 of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the preamble to the Constitution caught up with her over the weekend, after the questioning of the right to abortion in the United States.

"There is no need to brandish fears" in France, she assured then.

His words were widely relayed by LFI, denouncing a reversal of the majority, which has just proposed a constitutional revision … first skirmish.

© 2022 AFP