Laurent Wauquiez refuses François Bayrou's proposal, but wants an LR presence

With us, but without me. This is in essence the response given by Laurent Wauquiez to François Bayrou on Saturday evening on the participation of the Republicans in the next government, whose appointment is expected “before Christmas”. Despite the announcement on the retention of the very right-wing Bruno Retailleau, at the Ministry of the Interior, LR's agreement was long overdue at Matignon.

But Saturday evening, after having exchanged with François Bayrou, the leader of the LR deputies Laurent Wauquiez confirmed to his troops that he was moving towards the party's participation in the government, subject to written commitments from the Prime Minister “with details on the roadmap”. The presidents of the party's two parliamentary groups, Laurent Wauquiez for the National Assembly and Mathieu Darnaud for the Senate, asked the Prime Minister for final guarantees and that these be sent to them this Sunday in writing.

Wauquiez wanted Bercy, nothing but Bercy

“The conditions that we had set on the programmatic aspects found positive responses from the Prime Minister. He must confirm to us in writing his agreement on the four major points that we had presented,” declared Mathieu Darnaud. These requests concern the budget and the economy, “with a priority of reducing public spending”, the sovereign and in particular immigration, the revaluation of work, the territories and farmers, he specified.

According to several participants, the group in the Senate mainly considered that “the conditions are met” for LR to participate in the government. Referring to his “personal case”, according to participants in this meeting, Laurent Wauquiez declared: “The only possible configuration for me was Bercy (the Ministry of Finance) with a clear roadmap, in particular no increase in taxes. There is no such roadmap. He offered me something else, I declined.”