The conflicts of interest of deputies, a gray area in the National ***embly

The expression is enough to lead a hitherto cordial conversation with a deputy: “conflict of interest”. “There is no ethical question that arises”, “I invite you to weigh your words”, “We must stop the delirium! »… Parliamentarians do not appreciate being questioned about a possible link between their activity in the National ***embly and private interests. Always more declarations, always more checks, but always more questioning, they deplore. Control of political life has been strengthened since the creation of the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) ten years ago. But it essentially concerns the risks of criminal offenses and the control of the expenses of elected officials. Ethical questions remain almost unanimously ignored by those concerned.

The most flagrant sign of this denial is visible on the site of the National ***embly. Any MEP who considers himself to be in a situation of conflict of interest on a subject may decide to “resign”, which implies not taking part in a vote or in the discussions on a subject. Since the beginning of the mandate, in June 2022, only nineteen parliamentarians out of 577 have taken such a step, according to the deportation register.

This tool, born of the laws on confidence in political life brought by Emmanuel Macron in 2017, was however presented at the time by the government and the majority as a major step forward. “The ethics of each will require registration on the deportation lists to avoid any suspicion of conflict of interest”welcomed the deputy (Renaissance) of Yvelines Aurore Bergé… who has never used it since its creation, despite an old job in a communications agency.

In the event of a conflict of interest, MEPs are invited to register in a deportation register and to abstain from participating in discussions and votes on certain subjects. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

Use their “expertise”

Among the 3% of parliamentarians who carried out a deportation, we find Perrine Goulet (Nièvre, MoDem), Florence L***erre (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, MoDem) and Claire Pitollat ​​(Bouches-du-Rhône, Renaissance). These three elected officials are currently on availability from their jobs at EDF for the duration of their term of office and reserve themselves for certain debates concerning the energy company. The elected representative of Paris Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Renaissance) declares that she departs from all the texts which have “relating to commerce, commercial real estate and air transport” because of his past functions at Unibail-Rodamco and Air France-KLM. The ecologist deputy of Paris Eva Sas, she does not vote on the texts relating to the National Office of Forests because of a “family ties with an executive” of the public institution.

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