Keyword: National Assembly

Under new proposal - which has to be approved by MPs - prostitutes would continue to face fines and jail but customers would not be prosecuted.

Vote does not affect France's diplomatic stance but is part of growing effort from Europe to find new ways to push for peace in Middle East.

Thomas Thévenoud, who quit government after not filling in tax declarations, will stay as an MP - but not as a member of Socialist Party.

Despite abstention of 33 MPs from ruling Socialist Party, government cuts payroll taxes as third major union boycotts social conference.

French Parliament amends law to acknowldge that animals, previously on a legal par with furniture, are 'living beings endowed with sensibilities'.

Premier Manuel Valls says Euro is too strong, unveils tax cuts for less well-off and pledges to defend France's social model despite spending cuts.

Day after more than 100,000 marched against 'family phobia', government delays bill to modernise the law to reflect new 'diversity' of families.

An unidentified lorry driver was arrested after discharging a sizeable load of horse excrement in front of France's National Assembly.

MPs voted 268 to 138 in favour of law that imposes fines for anyone who buys a sexual act but bill must still pass the Senate before coming into force.

Opposition MP accused of sexism for making clucking noises when a female member of the National Assembly tried to speak in debate.

The right-wing opposition party, the UMP, has been very publicly falling apart after a disastrous leadership election. In the ranks of the ruling Socialist Party MPs and officials have had some fun at the expense of their bitter rivals, and the government has been able to press forward with legislation almost unopposed. But some socialist MPs fear the squabbles in the UMP will reflect badly on all political parties. Others are increasingly concerned that the government is adopting the wrong strategy in the face of the opposition’s melt-down, and favouring social democratic policies over genuine socialist measures. Stéphane Alliès and Mathieu Magnaudeix assess the mood in Parliament.

With the UMP paralysed by a bitter leadership dispute, the ruling Socialists have pushed ahead with contentious legislation almost unchallenged.

Following Mediapart’s revelations of the fraudulent misuse of funds paid to French Members of Parliament to offset their professional expenses, and the lack of proper control over generous funds allocated to their parliamentary groups, the National Assembly’s administrative services have taken a small, but symbolic step in putting order into the chamber’s financial management. Mathilde Mathieu reports.

While austerity measures, budgetary discipline and spending cuts are the watchwords of debates inside the French parliament, the institution itself enjoys a remarkably undisciplined and high-spending regime that pays parliamentary groups yearly subsidies of almost 10 million euros and without demanding any account to ensure the money is spent for legitimate purposes. Mathilde Mathieu reports.

A Mediapart investigation has revealed that a socialist MP used his parliamentary expenses allowance to pay for family holidays abroad. But his is not an isolated case. Instead, it highlights the near total lack of transparency and control over the way that France's Members of Parliament make use of their generous monthly expenses of more than 6,000 euros. A number of MPs are now calling for greater openness in the allowance system, fearing that an expenses scandal such as the one that hit British MPs in 2009 could engulf them. Meanwhile an anti-corruption organisation warns that an MP who can be shown to have misused their allowances could be prosecuted for misappropriation of public money. Valentine Oberti reports.