The keel for the 785 MEPs
On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg closed its doors. Temporarily. It is the end of the mandate.
Goodbyes or farewells
For several weeks, the time of the electoral campaign, the European assembly will not sit. During the last plenary session, this week in Strasbourg, it was therefore time for farewells for some, goodbyes for others. With some emotion. A few tears furtively wiped away during dinners and farewell drinks organized by each political group. Because all these years spent together have, despite everything, welded the spirits. As recalled Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the assembly during his final speech: We have learned to live together, to learn from each other ».
epic moments
Everyone remembers the epic moments of the last five years: the censorship against the prospective commissioner Buttiglione, the struggles around the Bolkestein directive, or this session in the middle of August in the middle of the war in Georgia. Everyone also knows that many will no longer be there at the next school year, next July. More than half of Parliament could, in fact, be made up of new faces. It's a real generational change that is being prepared. Many deputies have decided not to stand again, especially those who have served several terms. So it is with the French communist Francis Würtz, the Italian socialist, Enrico Berlinguer, or German Karl Von Wogau.
Relieved, a little...
Le Vert Alain Lipietz also goes away. Happy to have lived through his years… But also relieved to leave after 10 years spent in European spans. " Being an MEP means 60-70 hours of work per week. I can devote myself to something else ". Even sharper relief for Bernard Poignant, head of the French Socialist delegation, not sorry to end with the “annus horribilis” which saw the French Socialists split. Others are more bitter, those who have been expelled from the lists, or placed in uncertain ballots, such as the UMP Alain Lamassoure… The cruel game of politics. Where the bonus does not automatically go to talent but to glitter...
Nicolas GROS-VERHEYDE
(article published in Ouest-France, May 2009)
