Europe faces comedy crisis as final season of Parlement airs

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We first met him as a rookie, clumsy and a bit overwhelmed by the intricacies of the European Parliament; now we find him still just as awkward, but this time catapulted into the heart of the European Council. Samy, the endearing parliamentary assistant from the series
Parlement
, brilliantly portrayed by Xavier Lacaille, returns for one last battle in the fourth and final season that's now available on the France Télévisions website.
Political intrigue, colourful personalities, backroom maneuvering and a great deal of conflict and confusion… the European institutions provide the ideal setting for a good political drama. However, they have perhaps been overlooked by popular screenwriters, who've set their stories within the more prominent White House or the Elysée Palace rather than in Brussels and Strasbourg.
According to Maxime Calligero, co-writer of the series
Parlement
, this lack of interest stems from a persistent image: that of a European Union perceived as technocratic and consensual, founded on cooperation, stability, and overcoming disagreements.
"For a story to exist, there has to be conflict. But Europe, for historical reasons, was built away from conflict. The European institutions were created to foster compromise,' he says.
Parlement
shakes up the uniform and polished image the European institutions want to portray, revealing their tensions, absurdities, and power plays.
'Having worked for the European institutions for a long time, I know the backstage of European compromises—that is to say, the low blows, the negotiations, the conflicts between members of parliament and between member states. Our job as screenwriters was to bring that hidden conflict to the surface, the one the public never sees, but which definitely exists within the European institutions, and to turn it into fiction material,
'
continues Maxime Calligero.
Making comedy gold from Europe's complexities
The heavy weight of bureaucracy, procedures and cultural differences within the European institutions are rich sources of comedy, leading to absurd situations, hilarious misunderstandings, and witty dialogues.
'What is a weakness of the European Union—its complexity—becomes a strength, because complexity is always a good vehicle for comedy,' Calligero adds.
While
Parlement
plays with the institutional machinery and paradoxes of the European system, the tone of the series remains light and ironic, steering clear of harsh mockery or cruelty.
'In Parlement, we're more on the side of comedy than satire, because we have a lot of affection for our characters. There are very few characters we don't end up redeeming. We don't glorify the European Union, but we don't criticize it either. We try to laugh, not at the European Union, but with it,'
says Calligero.
Watch the full interview with Maxime Calligero in the player above.

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