PARIS — French lawmakers of a nervous disposition, look away now … a member of parliament wants to ban the sale of alcohol in the National Assembly bar!
According to a report seen by POLITICO’s Paris Playbook, Emmanuel Duplessy, of the leftist Génération.s party, wants not only to stop the bar from selling booze but also to prohibit MPs from claiming alcohol as part of their food and drink expenses.
The sale of alcohol “in a workplace raises many questions among the French,” Duplessy said.
Duplessy isn’t the first MP to try and sober up French politics. In May, Green Party leader Cyrielle Chatelain suggested banning alcohol in parliament in the evenings.
Arthur Delaporte, a Socialist MP who heads the association that manages the National Assembly’s eateries, said prices in the bar had increased, but if alcohol is excluded from expense claims for lawmakers, then the same rule should apply to “all companies for it to be acceptable.” That, he added, would “cause a stir among lawyers.”
Alcohol sales in the lower house of parliament’s bar generated around €100,000 in revenue last year (although there was a pause of around three months in legislative business after the dissolution of parliament).
French lawmakers might want to ask their Belgian colleagues for tips about non-alcoholic debates. Beer and wine have been banned in the Belgian federal parliament’s cafeteria since May.
The post Ban the vin? French lawmaker wants to outlaw booze in parliament bar appeared first on Politico.
