For the first time since his withdrawal in September, the deputy from the North returned to the National Assembly on Wednesday. Now non-registered, the presence of the elected official convicted of domestic violence, embarrasses the rebellious as the pension reform approaches. Some advise him to “be discreet” and work on a book.
Discretion. Since the return this Wednesday of Adrien Quatennens to the National Assembly, La France insoumise, which excluded him from its group until April 13, has kept a low profile on the subject. Only two deputies accompanied him when he left the Palais-Bourbon.
Mathilde Panot, the boss of the group, sent the message to her troops.
“Above all, if you are questioned, please do not open the soap opera (…). If we could avoid everyone’s personal opinions, as the battle for pensions begins, that would be good”, explained the elected representative of Val- de-Marne on the Telegram loop of the deputies according to information from the World.
“We don’t really have a say anymore”
It must be said that his presence in Parliament falls to the worst for the movement, the day after the announcement of the pension reform by Elisabeth Borne, largely rejected by the movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“It would be a mistake” to return today to the National Assembly in view of the “media moment” linked to pensions had thus advanced Alexis Corbière the day before his return to LCI.
“We did what was necessary to exclude him. The rest, afterwards, is no longer really our responsibility and we no longer really have our say. We saw it well this Wednesday”, answers again, lapidary , a heavyweight of the movement with BFMTV.com
“If he didn’t come back, we would accuse him of not doing his job”
When he left the Foreign Affairs Committee – the new body integrated by the now non-attached MP who had to leave the Social Affairs Committee -, Adrien Quatennens, who said “to apply and respect the decision taken by his political group “, was surrounded by two rebels, in particular Carlos Martens Bilongo.
The elected representative of Val-d’Oise who had organized a meeting in September in his constituency with Adrien Quatennens – before canceling it once the latter had admitted to having slapped his wife – said he was “not available” to answer to our questions.
“If he did not come back, we would accuse him of not doing his job. And when he comes back, he is criticized for working”, explains to us for his part the deputy LFI Arnaud Le Gall, also present alongside Adrien Quatennens upon leaving the Foreign Affairs Committee.
“He made comments that question us all collectively”
Before adding: “I respect his decision and he respects the decision of his group. He is exercising his constitutional freedom as a deputy”.
If the choice of Adrien Quatennens is not a surprise – the elected representative of the North had announced on our antenna that he would return “probably in January” -, she cringes.
“Our problem is that we made the decision to temporarily exclude him once we learned of his conviction. But since then, he has made comments that question us all individually and collectively with the choices that we did”, deciphers a rebellious deputy.
“Rethink” the decision of his exclusion
His speeches, in the wake of his conviction, caused trouble in his own camp. The former headliner of LFI first said he was the victim of a “media lynching” in The voice of the North.
On BFMTV, Adrien Quatennens then spoke of a romantic relationship that was “not violent” but “difficult for about two years”. The deputy also returned to the day he had slapped his wife, speaking of “a serious argument with reciprocal threats”.
Several leaders of the movement had then dissociated themselves from his remarks from Manon Aubry to Clémentine Autain via Sarah Legrain who heads the cell to fight against sexual and sexist violence in the movement. Several now evoke internally the need to “rethink” the decision taken before the interviews with Adrien Quatennens, a hypothesis which seems unlikely.
“To be discreet while being hardworking”
But the text signed by more than 1,000 LFI or Nupes activists calling for “the exclusion of Adrien Quatennens”Boxing Day, chilled even those who still supported him internally.
“There is no one known who signed him. But at one point, we say to ourselves that we may have gone to the end of what we could do to both punish him and allow him to be rehabilitated politically”, recognizes a framework of the movement.
To turn the page, Adrien Quatennens should devote himself in the coming weeks to the merits of the files.
“His objective now to turn the page is to be discreet while being hardworking, perhaps to write a book to tell what he has experienced”, deciphers a parliamentary collaborator.
Local support
If several of his relatives like Ugo Bernalicis, his constituency neighbor of whom Adrien Quatennens said of him in 2018 that he was “his alter ego in politics”remain silent, it is now necessary to turn to its Lille territory to find frank support.
Among these, there is Patrick Proisy, the LFI mayor of Faches-Thumesnil, one of the municipalities in the constituency of the deputy, who was present when he left the Lille court last December or his deputy in the legislative elections in 2017 Agnes Pinson. She assured this Thursday with The voice of the North that Adrien Quatennens “is not the violent man that we present”.
On the benches of the presidential majority which has not escaped the embarrassment of the rebellious, a bill to make deputies ineligible in the case of certain violence will be examined in the Assembly probably in March.
