The transfers of power have taken place. Christmas is behind us. Ministers will now be able to get to work. They have eight days to read their most urgent files and digest them, before the first Council of Ministers of the François Bayrou era on Friday January 3.
The end of the year deadline having almost passed, what will be the life expectancy of this new team now? Valentine's Day in February? Easter in April? Summer? Beyond ? The pressure from the opposition is already strong. Since the announcement of the composition of this executive Monday evening, attacks from the left have multiplied.
A finance bill to write
Three main challenges await this government in the coming weeks. And they will not fail to tense up a good part of the Assembly chamber. First real tests for the Prime Minister. With the risk of leaving a few feathers and having to face several motions of censure.
The first major meeting will be budgetary. France currently lives under a very provisional special law. A new finance bill must therefore be written, to try to fill the abysmal deficit. It is the Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, who will have to take care of this. Will he succeed in convincing the socialists to support him, in particular the First Secretary Olivier Faure of whom he is a close friend?
Maintain Republican support
The second priority for François Bayrou will be to maintain the support of the Republicans. If seven LRs are in the executive, this support is not guaranteed indefinitely. Laurent Wauquiez, boss of LR deputies, also announced a few hours ago that he “does not refrain from withdrawing its support if the country's recovery course is not clear. »
The PS wants a referendum
Third challenge: pension reform, Élisabeth Borne version. If the Prime Minister says he is ready to correct the text, in the event of consensus within the social conference he plans to convene, the left is wary. “We are not pigeons”, Olivier Faure already warns. The Socialist Party demands, in order, a suspension of the reform; holding a social conference; and, in the event of disagreement, the organization of a referendum. So many grievances that François Bayrou rejects. At the risk of going into conflict with his opposition.
