“I hold the government, my government, responsible. Everyone must take their responsibilities and I take mine. » Clenched fist tapping lightly on his desk, below the perch from which Yaël Braun-Pivet presides over the Assembly, Michel Barnier faces the deputies. To his left, the Rebels have already started to leave the Hemicycle even before the Prime Minister has time to finish his speech enacting the use of article 49.3, as provided for in the Constitution. A device, which his government is taking advantage of for the first time – and undoubtedly the last – and which allows the Social Security finance bill (PLFSS) to be adopted without debate or vote. The conclusion of a day where all the rumors circulated and signaled, barring an improbable twist of events, the death of the Barnier government. Because, in the wake of 49.3, the New Popular Front (NFP) and the National Rally announced that they would each submit a motion of censure, with an RN determined, this time, to unite its votes with the left bloc. The ultimate act and, repeatedly brandished for two months which will bring down the Savoyard, undoubtedly this Wednesday.
Attempt until the last minute
Until the last minute, a compromise between Michel Barnier and Marine Le Pen, who have been engaged in a standoff for several weeks over the budget, seemed possible. After the ultimatum launched this weekend by the boss of the nationalist deputies, the two spoke again this Monday morning during a telephone call. With an additional concession obtained from the RN side. After having renounced, at the end of last week, increasing the tax on electricity, as well as reducing care covered by state medical aid (AME) – two requests from the National Rally -, the Prime Minister Minister announced, in a press release published shortly after 1 p.m., that he would no longer be reimbursed for medications. Here again, a request from the party chaired by Jordan Bardella. The tenant of Matignon even put some formality into it by mentioning Marine Le Pen by name in his communication. A flower – and a budgetary gift – that will have been for nothing.
Because, after the triggering of 49.3, around 3:30 p.m., Marine Le Pen, in a packed room of 4 columns, explained to the many journalists present why she intended to censor Michel Barnier. After electricity, after AME, after medicines, the president of the RN group also expected an effort on the pensions side. “We made proposals to the government fairly, with loyalty. (He) did not wish to move beyond the reimbursement of medicines to the tune of 600 million euros. I remind you that the deindexation of pensions which brings the government 3.2 billion, is 0.5% of the entire PLFSS budget. It did not seem to me that this request was unbearable. »
“Dishonor and censure”
Just before her, it was the representatives of the New Popular Front who, in front of the cameras and the pens, underlined the reasons why the Barnier government must fall. “The Prime Minister wallowed in dishonor with the RN. This Wednesday, he will have dishonor and censorship,” warns the president of the Insoumis group, Mathilde Panot, without hiding the main objective of LFI: to drag Emmanuel Macron into the fall of the Prime Minister. “All that will remain is for the President of the Republic to leave and for the French people to be able to decide by their vote on the new directions they want for this country. »
On the socialist side, again, no qualms. As announced several days ago, the rose party will also vote for censorship. “We proposed in the Chamber eight billion in additional spending and 17 billion in revenue. That is to say that we have moved barely more than 2% of the overall volumes of the Social Security budget. We opposed a front of refusal,” explains the group president, Boris Vallaud. The Landes MP also deplores that Michel Barnier favored a dialogue with Marine Le Pen rather than with the left.
Two months ago almost to the day, Michel Barnier proposed, in his general policy declaration, a method. Made of respect and listening, it should allow the government to navigate the budgetary mouse hole that presented itself to it. Sixty days later, it is clear that the method was shattered on a shattered Hemicycle. There remains, now, a question: who will be able to get the country out of such an impasse with financial and economic consequences more uncertain than ever?
