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The médialab at the National Assembly hackathon: a cross-disciplinary exploration of parliamentary activity and interest groups

How can we explore the links between parliamentary activity and lobbyists using public data? As part of the 2026 National Assembly hackathon, several members of the médialab developed a semantic map to answer this question.

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On July 3 and 4, 2026, several members of the laboratory took part in the hackathon organized by the French National Assembly, working on a project led by César Pichon and Carlo Santagiustina.

The aim was to establish links between activity declarations submitted by interest representatives to the French High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) and the wording of certain amendments. In total, around ten people from a variety of backgrounds have joined the team.

Assemblée nationale
Assemblée nationale

During the event, the team developed a semantic map combining several types of data:

  • the subjects of lobbying activities declared to the HATVP;
  • the explanatory statements of a sample of amendments;
  • and a selection of Facebook posts published by organizations listed in the register of interest representatives.

The tool’s strategy consists in identifying amendments that explicitly indicate collaboration with an interest group. Using these amendments as reference points, the map introduces various semantic and lexical distance markers to identify other amendments that may be similar in terms of origin and legislative effect.

Assemblée nationale
Assemblée nationale

The project was presented publicly at the end of the event.

The visualizations produced are available on the project’s GitHub page.

Capture d’écran d’un cas exemple de la carte, montrant le lien de connexion entre un amendement sourcé et l’activité HATVP associée, ainsi que les amendements clones (en bleu) ou proches sémantiquement (en pointillés)
Capture d’écran d’un cas exemple de la carte, montrant le lien de connexion entre un amendement sourcé et l’activité HATVP associée, ainsi que les amendements clones (en bleu) ou proches sémantiquement (en pointillés)