“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen MPs and senators sit together, mingle at the table and chat in such a good atmosphere,” confided a senator when asked about the LR parliamentary days dinner at the Talloires Abbey on Lake Annecy on Thursday evening. Max Brisson, senator for Pyrénées-Atlantiques, confirms. “Having organized the parliamentary days in Biarritz two years ago, I can tell you that it has nothing to do with the great tension that reigned between MPs and senators.”
The appointment of one of their own to Matignon, Michel Barnier, and his commitment, yesterday at the parliamentary days in Annecy, to draw inspiration from their legislative pact, has plunged deputies and senators into a kind of euphoria. “We were in clinical death. And we are waking up from a coma,” summarizes senator Patrick Chaize.
A comparison with the great days of the UMP under Nicolas Sarkozy, when the right was in the majority in the Assembly and the Senate, is however abusive. Because if the LR are back in power, they do not have the majority. Even if some, like Bruno Retailleau, the president of the LR group, present the balance of power in a favorable light. “As far as the French Parliament is concerned, we are the first group. When you add up the deputies and the senators, there are practically 180 of us. It is an indispensable force”, he calculated yesterday, in front of journalists, avoiding the fact that only the deputies have the power to overthrow the government by a motion of censure and Laurent Wauquiez’s group only has about forty deputies.
“What was problematic until now was the arrogance of the Macronists”
In this unprecedented configuration under the Fifth Republic, how will parliamentary work take place in the upper house, where the right with its centrist allies, themselves allied since the European elections, with the Macronists, are in the majority? “There will be stronger collaborative work with the deputies. The urgency of the situation will mean that everyone will have to take a step. A lesson in democracy would be to find a way forward that satisfies everyone, by getting away from dogmatism. What was problematic until now was the arrogance of the Macronists who thought they were right against everyone. That struck me during the last budget. We made objective proposals to make savings. Everything was swept away with Article 49.3 and we find ourselves in the current situation,” insists Patrick Chaize.
“We will necessarily rewrite the texts less. I think that the future government will listen to Parliament. For us, it will be a different way of working, of making amendments in collaboration with the government team,” supports the senator for Yvelines, Sophie Primas.
The chairman of the law commission, François-Noël Buffet, has some doubts about this upcoming change. He remembers that even when the right had all the powers, certain reforms, such as the judicial map for example, were not passed like a letter through the post in the upper house. “I do not believe in a work of allegiance. But in a work of construction. This is the role of the senatorial institution. It cannot depart from its function,” he insists, putting things this way: “Loyalty to the Prime Minister and independence of the Senate.”
“I think it’s rather the Macronists who will have to work with us”
The joy of regaining power may also make some people forget that they will have to work in a plural majority in which they are far from being in a position of strength at the Palais Bourbon. “It is up to the Prime Minister to define the base on which he intends to rely. And if the texts are inspired by our work, by our markers, there will be no difficulties. Even if we do not ask for the strict application of our proposals,” Max Brisson agrees.
“I think that it is rather the Macronists who will have to work with us. It is rather in this direction (that it will happen)”, warns Sophie Primas.
On Thursday, before the elected representatives, the Prime Minister cited the recent work of the Senate halted by the dissolution, in particular the contributions of the upper house to the agricultural orientation bill which had been largely reworked in the Senate’s economic affairs committee by LR senator Laurent Duplomb.
“Laurent Wauquiez is holding on to get Beauvau, but the Macronists will never accept”
The atmosphere of frank camaraderie found within the right does not make us forget the competing ambitions. The LR parliamentarians are well aware that places will be expensive in the government and that a maximum of ten portfolios will be reserved for them. “Finding a place for the heavyweights will be the most complicated, because we cannot offer them a second-rate ministry. At a pinch, it will be easier for the featherweights,” a group advisor told us yesterday.
“Laurent Wauquiez is holding on to get Beauvau, but the Macronists will never accept. Whereas for Bruno Retailleau, we are talking about Bercy. A position where he will be less politically embarrassing,” explains a senator.
According to Senator Laurent Duplomb, close to Laurent Wauquiez, the competition between the two group presidents would be healthy. “These two men get along wonderfully. There is not a single sheet of paper that separates their visions. They will manage to find a solution for sharing positions or for exercising their responsibilities as best as possible.”
A senator is still nervous about the idea of seeing Laurent Wauquiez join the government. “I’m not sure it’s in his interest. He has already held ministerial positions. He has just been re-elected as a member of parliament, and he chairs the group. We are also going to need him to rebuild our political family,” she emphasizes.
Only a few more days of waiting to see if this beautiful union of the right resists thwarted ambitions.
