{"version":"1.9","identifier":"08d91ea4-c8ae-4eb0-9750-175279cc6f3e","language":"en-US","title":"A million signatures, three votes short: Assembly committee shelves petition to take CNews off the air","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/france-cnews-petition-shelved-committee-28-25-vote-portier-vallaud-conference-presidents-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-10T23:12:20.292085Z","dateModified":"2026-11-10T23:13:15.85176Z","authors":["567 Politics staff"],"excerpt":"The cultural affairs committee voted 28 to 25 to shelve the petition. The Socialists will now ask the Assembly's leaders to schedule a floor debate anyway.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/08d91ea4-c8ae-4eb0-9750-175279cc6f3e/05b779582e8067dbe3c02c7c7d4b4276.jpg","keywords":["fr"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"A million signatures, three votes short: Assembly committee shelves petition to take CNews off the air","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"The cultural affairs committee voted 28 to 25 to shelve the petition. The Socialists will now ask the Assembly's leaders to schedule a floor debate anyway.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By 567 Politics staff · Published November 10, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/08d91ea4-c8ae-4eb0-9750-175279cc6f3e/05b779582e8067dbe3c02c7c7d4b4276.jpg","caption":"The Palais Bourbon in Paris, seat of the National Assembly, whose cultural affairs committee shelved the CNews petition on Nov. 10, 2026 · DXR via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)","accessibilityCaption":"The Palais Bourbon in Paris, seat of the National Assembly, whose cultural affairs committee shelved the CNews petition on Nov. 10, 2026","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"The Palais Bourbon in Paris, seat of the National Assembly, whose cultural affairs committee shelved the CNews petition on Nov. 10, 2026 · DXR via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"A National Assembly committee voted 28 to 25 on Tuesday to shelve the petition calling for CNews to be taken off French television, ending its path to a debate in the chamber unless the Assembly's leaders choose to hold one anyway. The petition, titled \"Remove CNews from French broadcasting,\" had passed one million signatures on the Assembly's own website. That put the cultural affairs committee in the position of deciding whether a call to close a television channel deserved floor time.\n\nThe committee's chairman and rapporteur, Alexandre Portier of the Droite Républicaine group, argued that Parliament has no power to close a channel and should not act as if it did. He proposed instead a broader floor debate on the press, free expression and media regulation. The left-wing groups, which wanted the petition itself debated, say the vote silences a million citizens. The Socialist group has already said it will ask the Assembly's Conference of Presidents to put the petition on the agenda anyway. CNews welcomed what it called \"the discernment of the deputies.\"\n\nQuotations from French-language sources in this article are 567politics translations.\n\n## How the committee voted\n\nThe vote took place at a meeting that opened at 1 p.m. Paris time on Tuesday, November 10, which is 7 a.m. Eastern Time. France Insoumise (LFI) deputies asked for a recorded vote, which the Assembly's rules allow when a tenth of a committee's members request it, according to the [official committee record](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/comptes-rendus/cion-cedu/l17cion-cedu2627014_compte-rendu.pdf). The record lists 28 deputies who voted to shelve the petition and 25 who voted against. No one abstained. The Assembly's committee page confirms the [decision to shelve petition no. 5820](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/organes/commissions-permanentes/affaires-culturelles/actualites/decision-de-classement-de-la-petition-supprimer-cnews-de-l-audiovisuel-francais) under Article 148, paragraph 3, of the Assembly's rules.\n\nThe split followed the main blocs, with one exception. All deputies present from the National Rally (RN), its UDR allies, the Droite Républicaine, Horizons and LIOT groups voted to shelve. All deputies present from LFI, the Ecologists, the Socialists, the Communist-led GDR group and the centrist Democrats voted against shelving, which in practice meant voting for a debate. The presidential camp's Ensemble pour la République (EPR) group divided, four votes to three. The group tally below is from [Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/tv/cnews-qui-a-vote-quoi-quel-depute-a-decide-de-ne-pas-donner-suite-a-la-petition-pour-supprimer-la-chaine-10-11-2026-VZMABXLEMREWBOBVXJ3HMDXCWE.php), which matched the names in the official record to their groups. It counts RN-affiliated deputy Anne Sicard with the RN.\n\n**How each group voted on shelving the CNews petition**\n\nVotes of committee members present on Nov. 10, 2026. RN includes one affiliated deputy.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"
GroupShelveDo not shelve
RN11–
LFI–9
EPR43
Droite Républicaine6–
Ecologists–5
Socialists–4
Horizons3–
UDR2–
LIOT2–
Democrats–2
GDR–2
","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Source: [Assemblée nationale committee record](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/comptes-rendus/cion-cedu/l17cion-cedu2627014_compte-rendu.pdf), [Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/tv/cnews-qui-a-vote-quoi-quel-depute-a-decide-de-ne-pas-donner-suite-a-la-petition-pour-supprimer-la-chaine-10-11-2026-VZMABXLEMREWBOBVXJ3HMDXCWE.php)\n\nThe margin was three votes. The committee has more members than took part, so attendance mattered. The result also shows that the center was not united. The Democrats voted with the left on the procedural question, even as one of their deputies criticized the petition's aim, while EPR deputies split.\n\n## What the vote does and does not decide\n\nShelving the petition does not settle whether the chamber will discuss it. Under the Assembly's rules, a petition with at least 500,000 signatures from at least 30 departments or overseas territories can be debated in the chamber, but only the Conference of Presidents can put it on the agenda. That body brings together the Assembly's president, [Yaël Braun-Pivet](https://567politics.com/politicians/yael-braun-pivet), and the leaders of the political groups. When a committee shelves such a petition, any deputy has eight days to ask the Conference of Presidents to schedule a debate anyway, [franceinfo reported](https://www.franceinfo.fr/politique/la-petition-appelant-a-supprimer-cnews-de-l-audiovisuel-francais-classee-par-la-commission-de-l-assemblee-nationale_8276303.html), citing the Assembly's website. Any debate would end without a vote.\n\nThe vote also has no effect on the channel itself. Only Arcom, France's independent broadcasting regulator, can sanction a channel or withdraw its license to broadcast on the free digital terrestrial network, known as the TNT. CNews's license runs to 2035. Arcom formally ordered the channel in June to respect the legal requirement that different currents of opinion be heard on air, a decision CNews has challenged in court. Our [earlier report on the petition](https://567politics.com/news/france-cnews-petition-assembly-culture-committee-portier-arcom-november-2026) explains that decision and the regulator's options.\n\nPrevious petitions show how the Conference of Presidents has used its power. Three earlier petitions passed 500,000 signatures, according to franceinfo. Only the one against the \"Duplomb law\" on farming led to a debate in the chamber. The other two, against a bill on antisemitism by deputy Caroline Yadan and against a bill creating a presumption of lawful use of firearms by police, were shelved. In those cases deputies said a debate would duplicate the examination of bills already before Parliament.\n\n**What happens to a petition with more than 500,000 signatures**\n\n1. **Signatures**: at least 500,000 from at least 30 departments or territories\n2. **Committee**: names a rapporteur and votes to shelve or examine it\n3. **Shelved**: any deputy has eight days to ask for a debate anyway\n4. **Conference of Presidents**: the Assembly's president and group leaders decide\n5. **Floor debate**: held in the chamber, with no vote at the end\n\nSource: [franceinfo](https://www.franceinfo.fr/politique/la-petition-appelant-a-supprimer-cnews-de-l-audiovisuel-francais-classee-par-la-commission-de-l-assemblee-nationale_8276303.html), [Assemblée nationale](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/organes/commissions-permanentes/affaires-culturelles/actualites/decision-de-classement-de-la-petition-supprimer-cnews-de-l-audiovisuel-francais)\n\n## Portier: \"We are not Arcom\"\n\nPortier, who chairs the committee and served as rapporteur for the petition, opened the meeting by recommending that it be shelved. \"Parliament's role is not to decide which channels have the right to broadcast according to their editorial lines,\" he said, according to [LCP](https://lcp.fr/actualites/petition-contre-cnews-coup-d-arret-au-texte-qui-demandait-la-suppression-de-la-chaine-du), the Assembly's news channel. \"We are not Arcom, we are not the courts.\"\n\nHe then proposed an alternative. \"I propose that we shelve the petition and ask for a major debate in the chamber on the future of the press, freedom of expression, media regulation, the fight against foreign interference and the influence of social networks,\" he told the committee, as quoted by LCP. After the vote, he told LCP that Braun-Pivet \"knows my wish on this matter\" and that he wanted deputies to be able to speak \"from the rostrum on an essential subject for the months to come.\"\n\n## The left: \"a debate on CNews,\" not a general one\n\nThe left-wing groups rejected the idea of a broad debate as a substitute. \"We are not asking for a vague debate on freedom of expression in the chamber,\" said Aymeric Caron of [La France insoumise](https://567politics.com/parties/france/lfi), according to LCP. \"We want a debate in the chamber on CNews's failure to respect its agreement\" with Arcom. Caron, a former journalist at iTélé, the channel that became CNews, called it a \"promotional tool of the far right,\" according to [franceinfo](https://www.franceinfo.fr/politique/la-petition-appelant-a-supprimer-cnews-de-l-audiovisuel-francais-classee-par-la-commission-de-l-assemblee-nationale_8276303.html). \"It is a legal problem, not a free-speech problem,\" he said.\n\nArthur Delaporte, a Socialist deputy, said the petition's signers \"are not asking us for a debate on freedom of expression, but for a debate on whether or not one is free to be racist on television,\" LCP reported. Sophie Taillé-Polian, an Ecologist, told the committee: \"This million people are telling you that there is a problem with CNews.\"\n\nBoris Vallaud, who leads the Socialist group, said on X after the vote that shelving the petition \"is a mistake\" and that his group would ask the Conference of Presidents for a debate in the chamber at its next meeting. The Conference meets on Tuesday mornings.\n\n\n\nLFI, led in the Assembly by [Mathilde Panot](https://567politics.com/politicians/mathilde-panot), had asked for the recorded vote and backed a debate on the petition itself.\n\n## The right: \"the obsession with censorship\"\n\nThe deputies who voted to shelve described the petition as an attack on free expression. Caroline Parmentier of the [National Rally](https://567politics.com/parties/france/rn) said deputies \"should be ashamed to be debating the banning of a channel\" and denounced \"this obsession with censorship carried by the left and the far left,\" according to LCP and franceinfo. She said \"every day that passes raises the pressure and violence exerted by La France insoumise and its proxies.\"\n\nAnne Sicard, a deputy affiliated with the RN, asked why lawmakers should \"put CNews on trial, which denounces anti-white racism, rather than public broadcasting, which chooses to keep quiet about it,\" LCP reported. Charles Alloncle of the UDR, the group allied with the RN, said \"the French expect answers to the crises they are going through, not the closure of channels they watch.\"\n\nThese arguments echo the position [Marine Le Pen](https://567politics.com/politicians/marine-le-pen) set out on X on November 2, when she said everyone must be free to watch, criticize or defend the channel.\n\n## The center: wary of the petition, split on the vote\n\nCentrist deputies who spoke took aim at the idea of closing a channel, whichever way they voted. \"How can one claim to fight fascism while borrowing its methods?\" asked Laurent Croizier of the Democrats, according to LCP. His group nonetheless voted against shelving the petition. Céline Calvez of EPR said \"the issue goes beyond CNews. In a democracy, the power to inform oneself must never become the power of a few to decide what others have the right to know.\"\n\nLCP reported that most of the central bloc's deputies defended shelving the petition and backed a broader debate. The vote tally shows that this was not unanimous: three EPR deputies and both Democrats voted the other way.\n\n## Reactions from the Assembly's president, the government and CNews\n\nBraun-Pivet, who will chair the Conference of Presidents when it considers the request, told franceinfo after the vote: \"I listen to citizens and I want petitions, when they gather so many signatures, to be able to lead to a debate in the chamber.\" She did not say what she would propose.\n\nCulture Minister Catherine Pégard was asked about the petition again at questions to the government on Tuesday afternoon. \"This petition has been shelved, I take note of it,\" she said, franceinfo reported. A week earlier she had called the petition \"a parliamentary matter\" on which the government did not need to take a position.\n\nCNews said in a [statement on its website](https://www.cnews.fr/france/2026-11-10/cnews-prend-acte-de-la-decision-de-ne-pas-donner-suite-la-petition-demandant-sa) that it \"takes note\" of the decision. \"By its very purpose, this petition was a political move: it demanded the closure of a media outlet,\" the channel said. \"We welcome the discernment of the deputies, who were able to judge its scope. A petition cannot, on its own, be presented as the expression of the majority of the French.\" It added: \"Everyone is free to criticize CNews and to dispute its editorial choices. But demanding the disappearance of a channel raises an essential question for pluralism and the freedom to inform.\" It also posted the statement on X.\n\n\n\nCNews, part of the Canal+ group in the media holdings of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, has long denied promoting far-right views and says it defends freedom of expression. Arcom has sanctioned it several times, [RTL noted](https://www.rtl.fr/actu/politique/supprimer-cnews-les-deputes-classent-sans-suite-la-petition-a-plus-d-un-million-de-signatures-7900694777). The regulator has not commented on the petition.\n\n## How the petition reached a million\n\nThe petition was filed in June by a private individual on the Assembly's [petition platform](https://petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr/initiatives/i-5820/). It describes CNews as \"a propaganda machine,\" compares it to Fox News and objects to on-air remarks it describes as racist. It asks for the withdrawal of the channel's TNT agreement and its closure. Signers must log in through FranceConnect, the state's identity service, so each person can sign only once.\n\nThe text drew little attention for months. Signatures rose after the racist shooting in Trappes on October 23, in which a young man was killed and seven people were injured. The petition passed 500,000 signatures on November 2 and one million on Sunday, November 8, according to franceinfo. Our report on [Arcom's referral of Éric Zemmour to prosecutors after the Trappes attack](https://567politics.com/news/france-arcom-zemmour-referral-prosecutors-trappes-great-replacement-bill-november-2026) covers another strand of the same media dispute.\n\nA signature count is not a poll. The petition shows that more than a million people with FranceConnect accounts chose to sign it. It does not show what share of French adults would support closing the channel, and no representative survey on that question was found for this story. CNews, for its part, says it was France's most-watched news channel in October, with a 3.6% audience share. That figure measures viewing, not approval, so it does not settle the question either.\n\n## What to watch\n\nThe next step is the Conference of Presidents, which meets on Tuesday mornings. The Socialists' request will test whether Braun-Pivet and the group leaders want to debate the petition itself, Portier's broader subject, or nothing at all. The left wants a debate focused on CNews's compliance with its Arcom agreement. Portier and much of the center want a general debate on press freedom, regulation and foreign interference. The RN and its allies opposed any debate on the petition.\n\nThe fight is also part of the run-up to the April 2027 presidential election, in which media and immigration are already central themes. The positions of France's parties on these and other questions are mapped on our [France political spectrum](https://567politics.com/political-spectrum?country=france), shown below. The placements are dated editorial estimates, not measured scores.\n\n[Explore the political spectrum on 567politics](https://567politics.com/political-spectrum?country=france)\n\n## How we reported this\n\n567politics read the official committee record listing every deputy's vote, the committee's announcement and the petition on the Assembly's platform. Group-by-group totals come from Le Parisien's match of the record's names to groups; they add up to the record's 28-to-25 total. Quotes from the meeting come from LCP and franceinfo, because the full transcript had not been published when this story was written. The committee record says the debate is available on the Assembly's video portal. Vallaud's and CNews's statements are their own posts on X. Panot's letter was reported but not seen by 567politics. See our [methodology](https://567politics.com/methodology) for how we source and check stories.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}