The RN will vote for censure against the government “if the purchasing power of the French is cut” by the budget, threatens Marine Le Pen. A threat that is starting to worry, from the executive side.
Published on 20/11/2024 17:21
Reading time: 3min
Marine Le Pen is threatening a motion of censure to overthrow Michel Barnier's government before the end of the year. The boss of the RN group in the National Assembly is increasing the pressure by demanding action from the government on the budget.
Marine Le Pen refuses the increase in taxes on electricity and finds “inadmissible” that retirees are hit in the wallet. She will have the opportunity to say it on Monday November 25 to the Prime Minister because Michel Barnier will receive, one by one, the heads of parliamentary groups to talk about the budget and he will start with Marine Le Pen. If the leader of the RN is not heard on some of her demands, she is very clear: “What is certain is that we will not accept that the purchasing power of the French is further reduced, in the situation they are experiencing today. So that is a red line. And if , indeed, this red line has been crossed, we will vote for censorship. There is zero ambiguity..
When Michel Barnier was appointed in September, the RN decided to give the new Prime Minister a chance by deciding not to join the left's motion of censure. However, in recent days, the tone has changed. Marine Le Pen's lieutenants are clearly increasing the pressure even if they assure that it has not “no link” with the prosecution's requisitions in the case of European parliamentary assistants who threaten Marine Le Pen with ineligibility for the presidential election. But a deputy, support of Michel Barnier, fears that given the circumstances, it could be “attempted to practice scorched earth policy” by bringing down the government.
This threat worries the executive enough that it has gone into “response” mode. In response to threats of censorship from the RN, members of the government do not hesitate to threaten disorder, chaos and financial crisis if the government falls at the end of the year. “No government and no budget, that would put stress in the country at Christmas”dramatizes a minister who is nevertheless fatalistic: “If the oppositions band together to overthrow the government, it will fall”. If the RN and the left vote together, this will indeed be the case.
However, among Michel Barnier's supporters, some want to believe in a bluff on the part of the National Rally, like this deputy who considers that the RN could be content to table its own motion of censure which would have no chance of passing, history to send a message to his voters hostile to Michel Barnier but without going so far as to vote for the New Popular Front. As always, as soon as we talk about the RN's parliamentary strategy, Marine Le Pen's troops risk playing lying poker until the last moment.