POLITICS – Can the last really become the first? It is a reduced group of Republican MPs who will meet on September 11, 12 and 13 in Aix-les-Bains for the parliamentary days of the ” Republican Right “But despite the seats lost in the legislative elections and the psychodrama caused by the alliance of the party president Éric Ciotti with the RN and against his flock, the group’s spokesperson in the National Assembly Vincent Jeanbrun is in good spirits.
Barnier Prime Minister: In government, the LR are about to weigh, despite their defeat in the legislative elections
From the train taking him to Savoie, the Val-de-Marne MP praises the strength of his political group. The appointment of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister has put his political family back at the centre of the game, and the new head of government has been invited to the parliamentary days. On this occasion, participation in the government, initially ruled out by the group’s leader Laurent Wauquiez, has now had the green light from LR parliamentarians.
How exactly? This question, as well as that of the attitude to adopt in the National Assembly, will be on the agenda of the discussions this weekend. Everything will be decided according to the general policy speech of the new head of government, recalls Vincent Jeanbrun. But the lights are flashing rather green for the moment. Interview.
How are you approaching this return to school after the political sequence that we have just experienced?
Vincent Jeanbrun : It’s a great start to the school year. First, because there are in the group ” Republican Right “a very strong cohesion around the line decided last July. Then, we are lucky to have a group president who is flawless: on leadership, in his ability to hold the lines and negotiate with the President of the Republic and the other forces in the Assembly, and above all, flawless in terms of internal democracy within the group.
You won less than 6% of the vote in the legislative elections and the Prime Minister still comes from your ranks. Did the Republicans pull off the heist of the century?
The Republican right, through its desire to remain in a logic of construction, was a pivotal element in unblocking the situation. As for the word ” hold-up “… If the Socialist Party had not rejected Mr. Cazeneuve’s candidacy, he would be Prime Minister today. We cannot be accused of hold-up when it was the left itself that refused the proposal of the President of the Republic. He acknowledged that there was no majority to avoid censure on the left, so he went back to the right.
How does your group see itself in the hemicycle? Being in the opposition with Michel Barnier as Prime Minister seems difficult, will you be the pivotal group for Macronie?
We are the pivotal political formation by nature. For the rest, it is the general policy discourse that will tell us. Our line remains the legislative pact (presented as a prerequisite for any joint work by the LR leaders in Macronie, Editor’s note). It contains red lines: no tax increases and no ministers from La France Insoumise. If these two lines were to be crossed, censorship would be immediate. But if they are respected and if we find the proposals that are ours, on the issues of security, access to public services and especially work put back at the heart of public policy and the social pact, obviously we have a vocation to work with the government. Even to be part of it.
Your party broke with Éric Ciotti because of his alliance with the extreme right. Michel Barnier was appointed to Matignon thanks to the RN’s promise not to censor him immediately. How was this paradox experienced in your group?
We don’t have this analysis at all. If Mr. Cazeneuve had been appointed to Matignon, we would have had a socialist Prime Minister (Bernard Cazeneuve left the PS in 2022, Editor’s note), from a small party in the Assembly and at the head of a coalition, the NFP. It’s the same with Michel Barnier: he comes from a political family that is the Republican right, with a small party in the Assembly and a large current with a network of local elected officials. It is not a coalition resulting from the legislative elections, but we are nevertheless in a coalition logic.
How does the group view the budget debates?
This is going to be a litmus test. If, as we hope, the key elements of the legislative pact are found in the budget, then we will support it. Mr Barnier comes with his negotiating philosophy (he is notably the architect of the Brexit agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom, Editor’s note). I think that he will make all the political groups work upstream, with the government’s roadmap as a basis to integrate the proposals and amendments. The government’s version will thus have been worked on with the elected representatives and if there is 49.3, the text retained will at least have integrated the parliamentary work. It is a question of method and style.
Michel Barnier declared on September 11th from the Horizons parliamentary days in Reims that there would be a government “next week”. Should Laurent Wauquiez be part of it?
It’s up to him to say.
And you ?
The question is, above all, how can I be useful to the Prime Minister and to my political family. If someone thinks that he can be useful and we offer him something, he cannot say no.
Also see on Le HuffPost :
Michel Barnier Government: Gérard Larcher considers LR participation “logical”
Michel Barnier censored by the left? Macronie criticizes the NFP, while it promised the same thing
