A dive into the world of the National Assembly in Paris with Lozère MP Sophie Pantel

Sophie Pantel in the hemicycle of the National Assembly. MIDI LIBRE – M. P.

Sophie Pantel was elected MP for Lozère in July 2024. “Midi Libre” followed the elected official for a day in one of the two temples of French democracy, the National Assembly, in Paris. Before the parliamentary session begins this Tuesday, October 1, 2024.

It is 7:30 a.m., this Wednesday, September 25, 2024, the day is breaking and Paris is waking up, on the left bank of the Seine where the National Assembly building stands majestically. Sophie Pantel, the MP for Lozère, leaves the Chaban-Delmas building at 101 rue de l'Université, where she lives in an office-bedroom. “I work 15 hours a day”, she smiles, despite the fatigue of a stubborn cold. No time to crow, the day is off to a flying start.

Rue de Solférino, former socialist stronghold

On the corner of Rue de Solférino, next to the former stronghold of the Socialist Party, the bar-brasserie of the same name gradually fills up with elected officials of the Republic, for a press conference in the form of a breakfast proposed by the agricultural unions FNSEA and JA. Dozens of elected officials take their places. We can recognize Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, former Minister of Health, or the communist André Chassaigne, who missed the perch by a hair last summer.

Sophie Pantel sits next to Stéphane Mazars, MP for Aveyron. Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA begins his speech: “France has an agricultural asset that it does not use enough…", he says before going on to discuss the problems linked to the farmers' crisis. Under the attentive listening of the elected officials. A game of questions and answers will follow.

Also read: Parliamentary attachés, salaries and allowances of deputies, Sophie Pantel reveals the underside of the cards

The Finance Committee of the National Assembly

It is 9:30 a.m., time to enter the National Assembly, to attend the meeting of the Finance Committee (of which Sophie Pantel is a member for the Socialist group), for an audit on inheritance rights. The time to cross the hall of lost steps, that of conferences, to glimpse the deputies' café (strictly reserved for the use of elected officials, no guests, assistants or journalists are tolerated), “here, you always have to wear your badge, under penalty of a fine on your salary”, whispers Sophie Pantel, to meet Sandrine Rousseau (EELV), coffee in hand, that it is already time to enter the committee room.

The representative of the Court of Auditors has begun her presentation. Éric Coquerel (LFI), the chairman of the committee, listens attentively before giving the floor to the different political groups. To her right, the tables of the right, in the center those of the centrists, to her left those of the left. Each group has two minutes to ask a question. A stopwatch on the wall mercilessly measures the speaking time of each person.

The Finance Committee in audit (in the background Éric Coquerel, the president). MIDI LIBRE – M. P.

Already noon, Sophie Pantel returns to her office in the Chaban-Delmas building where her two parliamentary attachés are waiting to prepare or refine several files and in particular her intervention in the afternoon, during the hearing of the very new Minister of Finance Antoine Armand. There too, the team times, cuts, shears, reformulates the intervention. Two minutes and not a second more. Time for a lunch break, where the elected official will go in a short hop to vote to reject the 2023 public accounts, back to the committee room where the Minister of Finance is expected (see insert).

In the main courtyard, statues of famous women such as Olympe de Gouges. MIDI LIBRE – M. P.

Meetings, listening

It is 4 p.m. Back again in the Chaban-Delmas building by an underground corridor to attend two other meetings; one with Véronique Le Floc’h, president of the Rural Coordination, the other with representatives of the Agricultural Cooperation. Milk prices, cereals, livestock farming are on the grill. Here too, several deputies came to listen, ask questions to bring certain grievances to the attention of the various committees of the Assembly, which will lead, for the most important ones, to amendments of the texts in progress or to proposals for laws.

The discussions will continue until late, before the MP rushes to the Maison de l'Amérique latine, on Boulevard Saint-Germain, for an economic forum. At dawn the next day, she will take the train to Macon for the national firefighters' congress, before returning to Lozère. And before the general policy statement by Michel Barnier, the Prime Minister, this Tuesday, October 1, for the parliamentary session. She will attend, from her seat in the hemicycle, on 463.

Antoine Armand and Laurent Saint-Martin auditioned

A horde of photographers waited in the Salle des Pas Perdus of the National Assembly for the arrival of the Minister of the Economy of the Barnier government, Antoine Armand, and the Minister responsible for the Budget and Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, for their audition.

As soon as they were seated in the Finance Committee room, the moment was immortalized. Eric Coquerel, the committee chairman, opened the session and gave the floor to Laurent Saint-Martin: “I am here to deliver a speech of truth and method,” he said before unfolding his arguments, particularly to combat the explosion of the public deficit. Antoine Armand spoke, among other things, about growth: “I want to work on it right now.”