“A negation of the result of the last elections”: the NFP files its first motion of censure against the Barnier government

The first motion of censure against the government of Michel Barnier, signed by 192 deputies of the New Popular Front, was tabled on Friday, and will be defended on Tuesday afternoon by the First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, we learned from sources parliamentarians.

“The existence of this government, in its composition and its orientations, is a negation of the result of the last legislative elections”affirms the motion, which has very little chance of being adopted, the National Rally having indicated that it would not vote for it.

What does the NFP text say?

For the deputies of the New Popular Front, “the President of the Republic should have appointed to Matignon the personality proposed by the New Popular Front, the coalition having collected the greatest number of seats (193) in the National Assembly. It is then up to this personality to propose a government to the President of the Republic and to seek to build majorities text by text”.

“Second reason for censorship” advance, “the political orientations of the Barnier government”in particular the refusal of the executive to return to the 2023 pension reform, and budgetary texts which promise to be “the most austerity of these twenty-five years”.

Furthermore “Michel Barnier seems to be content with empty words about defending the environment and the climate”accuse the socialist, communist, environmentalist and rebellious deputies.

“To vote on this motion of censure is to denounce the non-respect of republican tradition with the appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon; it is to preserve our social model; it is to sanction a government which takes up the concepts and vocabulary of the extreme right is finally to protect the rule of law, which is an intangible principle”concludes the text, in an allusion to comments by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (LR) which sparked an outcry.

“The source of the rule of law (…) is the sovereign people”

“The rule of law is not intangible or sacred”Bruno Retailleau said last week, adding that “the source of the rule of law is democracy, it is the sovereign people”.

RN deputy Laure Lavalette reaffirmed Thursday that the RN would not vote for the left-wing text. “I think the situation is serious enough not to already censor this government in advance. We are going to, I was going to say, give the product a chance (…) we cannot add chaos like you are doing”she said on the set of France 2, facing NFP officials.

The motion could, however, be voted on beyond the benches of the left, by non-registered deputies, from the Liot group (independents) or even from the presidential camp.

New Caledonia MP Emmanuel Tjibaou, a pro-independence activist, did not sign the motion although he sits with the communists within the GDR group. Prime Minister Michel Barnier made a gesture in the direction of the separatists on Tuesday by announcing in his general policy declaration that the constitutional bill on the unfreezing of the electorate adopted last May by the parliamentary assemblies would not be submitted to Congress.