Bruno Colmant: “Bringing party presidents into government? No, that would weaken legislative power”

If party presidents become ministers, this means that the government does not come from parliament. However, we are in a parliamentary system. And as the deputies have been designated on a list by their party president, are elected where appropriate, and are themselves attached to political quotas, this means that parliament can no longer play its role of counter-power. Political parties are establishing themselves in the executive itself and the latter, by force of circumstances, is no longer controlled by the legislature. We therefore reverse the emanation of power.

In practice, this is already the case: the personalities, whether parliamentarians or not, who become ministers are designated by their party president…

Yes, that’s correct. All the more reason, therefore, not to make it a custom which could risk being perpetuated, not to “institutionalize” the thing. I fear there is no going back. The major danger is not only that power is concentrated in the hands of a few people, but also that we no longer have an echo chamber, an agora that allows debate. This is all the more true today as the Senate has become an empty shell in Belgium, where most countries have retained a bicameral system. It’s a loss of collective intelligence.

Should we relay each new idea from Georges-Louis Bouchez?

In reality, it’s like in a company: a CEO who imposes his orders alone will end up making a mistake. It must therefore be contradicted. Today there is a tendency – observable in France and the United States – to see power becoming more and more authoritarian through a strengthening of the executive to the detriment of the legislature. I think she needs to be questioned. The question of what we want as a social project must be debated in parliament. I believe very strongly in this idea of ​​counter-power.

For the rest, I recognize that this formula has at least the advantage of consistency since it is in fact the people who negotiated the government agreement who would be required to defend it subsequently during the legislature.