Assemblee National Sends Marriage Bill to Senate

[JockBoy87]

The final vote in the lower house of the French Parliament sends the equal marriage bill to the Senate. The bill passed 329 to 229. Analysis of the vote from pundits to follow...

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/#

The Presidential majority is much smaller in the Senate, holding 164 out of 348 seats. The Senate is known as the more conservative of houses, being indirectly elected, and leans in favor of rural areas of France. The bill could pass with votes from other parties.

[Rolyo85]

Awesome! Go France!

[JockBoy87]

PinkNews reports that the Senate will receive the bill on March 18, while the Washington Blade says debate will commence on April 2.

[scream4ever]

Here it the partisan roll call for the bill:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_34...ussion_Session

In regards to the Senate, the parterns in the left coalition are all expected to vote nearly unanimous in favor, so the bill will still pass no problem.

[JockBoy87]

Percentage-wise the breakdown of the Assembly vote is:

SRC 96.9%
UMP 1.15%
UDI 13.8%
EELV 100%
GDR 69%
RRDP 86.7%
"Non-Attached" 0%

It took some time to sort out the multitude of parties and different coalitions they form in each chamber. Translated in the Senate by my calculations that means:

142 Socialist + RDSE
10 EELV
2 UMP
4 UDI
14 CRC
0 Non-Inscrits

Had the vote occurred in the Senate, we would have 172 votes out of 348, which is two votes short of a majority. There may be additional votes because there are more Communists in the corresponding Senate coalition, but I don't see smooth sailing for this bill in the Senate. If it passes, it will be by just a few votes.

[scream4ever]

^^^I think you have some numbers wrong. There are 12 members of the EELV, not 10, and while it's unknown how many Communists and RDSE members will vote for it, I suspect they will be near unanimous in their support given their party descriptions. Given that case, it'll be 180 votes, that is of course assuming everyone shows up.

[JockBoy87]

In other words, the Senate vote will be barely passing. Nail biter to the end. Given 12 Greens (I was looking at old data), the bill would go even-steven, and with a larger share of Communists in the Senate, it would be just barely passing. Well lets see what the initial vote is hopefully on April 2, if the Senate operates with the same procedure. Then we can know where the CRC stands, unanimous or not.

[JockBoy87]

The opposition wasted 110 hours over 10 days of the Assembly's time offering amendments to delay the bill. [link]