François Bayrou re-invited the presidents of parties and groups to Parliament this Thursday at 2 p.m. to try to find points of convergence with a view to a future government. LFI, the RN and its ally UDR are not invited.
The essentials
- François Bayrou sent a letter to the presidents of the two chambers as well as to the heads of parliamentary groups and party leaders, except those of La France insoumise, the National Rally and the Union of Rights for the Republic, to invite them to Matignon this Thursday at 2 p.m.
- According to information from Politicothis meeting was designed to “try to find points on which we can agree”. “He will talk about his method, explain how he wants to expand the central bloc,” specifies an elected representative to the media who already indicated yesterday that the Prime Minister could proceed in two stages: appoint the main ministers before Christmas and the others in early next year.
- Several names of potential ministers are put forward for the Bayrou government: some outgoing like Bruno Retailleau, Rachida Dati, Sébastien Lecornu or Jean-Noël Barrot, others are former ministers like Elisabeth Borne, Gérald Darmanin, but also Pierre Moscovici and François Rebsamen. The tenant of Matignon would like to see as many ministers from the right as from the left in his government at the rate of one third each, the last third returning to the central bloc. But cohabitation promises to be difficult.
- For the PS, “the justice of the peace will be the declaration of general policy” affirmed Patrick Kanner, president of the socialist group in the Senate. “We have not succeeded in identifying points of convergence which will lead us to be enthusiastic”, regretted for his part an environmentalist deputy in the columns of Politico. On the right, participation in the executive is always conditional on François Bayrou’s “fundamental project”. If it does not suit Laurent Wauquiez (LR), they will not be there.
And directly
10:50 – François Bayrou wants to reunite “those who have failed”, tackles Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN)
“It brings together those who have failed,” criticizes RN deputy Jen-Philippe Tanguy this morning at the microphone of France 2, regarding the composition of the future government. As a reminder, the party with the flame was not invited to the new meeting organized in Matignon by the Prime Minister, this afternoon at around 2 p.m. “It is not a personal feeling that predominates but the concern of our 11 million voters (…) He does not know where he is going. What does he want for France?”, he asks .
09:58 – LR ministers in the government? “For the moment, the account is not there”
On the LR side, it’s time for reflection. No guarantee on the migration issue or pension reform allows them, for the moment, to say with certainty that they will participate in a Bayrou government. “For the moment, we are rather on the line that the account is not there”, indicated this week a close friend of the president of the Republican Right group to Politico. What about the resigning LR ministers? “They are not there to dictate what we do, it is the group that decides,” said a right-wing MP to the media. “It will depend on what he (Bruno Retailleau) will manage to deal,” said a right-wing advisor.
09:37 – The socialists “will not enter the government”
“The President of the Republic, by not appointing a left-wing Prime Minister, takes the risk of aggravating the institutional and political crisis that he opened with the dissolution (…) We are looking for a path of stability, a certain “a number of texts must be discussed, I want the lives of French men and women to improve”, indicated this Thursday morning, the president of the socialist group in the National Assembly Boris Vallaud on Sud-Radio. Its deputies are “in opposition” and “will not return to government”. Clear, crisp and precise.
18/12/24 – 11:53 p.m. – Marine Le Pen mocks François Bayrou’s invitation to Matignon
END OF LIVE – “Mr. Bayrou should have invited the political parties which had responsibilities during the Fourth Republic instead. At least, they would have had a topic of conversation!”, mocked Marine Le Pen on the social network X. She attached the letter, signed by the Prime Minister, inviting most of the parties to Matignon on Thursday at 2 p.m., except LFI, the RN and the UDR.
François Bayrou has in fact invited representatives of groups who “had responsibility for the country’s affairs at one period or another during the Fifth Republic”.
18/12/24 – 11:01 p.m. – No NFP minister in the Bayrou government, assures Alexis Corbière
“There will be no left-wing minister, from the NFP, who will join the government of François Bayrou,” thundered Alexis Corbière on the BFMTV set. “Not out of sectarianism, but because the Prime Minister will pursue a policy consistent with that pursued in recent years” under Emmanuel Macron, continued the NFP deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, ex-LFI.
To go further
The appointment of a new Prime Minister will not change anything, even if a new stage is launched. The political crisis that France has been going through since this summer is not ready to end. The resignation of Michel Barnier, imposed by the censorship of the government voted by the deputies on December 4, reminded those who had forgotten that the executive has always been very fragile. Emmanuel Macron’s choice to appoint Michel Barnier to Matignon, after a failed dissolution, gave the keys to the National Rally. Without the implicit support or let it happen of the RN, the next government will not last much longer. The government is facing political and arithmetic reality: its line is very much in the minority in the National Assembly, the deputies of the opposition parties are more numerous than those of the “common base” parties.
Emmanuel Macron had also prepared for the fall of Michel Barnier’s government at the end of November, based on numerous indiscretions. He had started testing the names of potential replacements even before the censorship. The choice of François Bayrou ultimately gives the signal that he remains on the same line as before: for him, it is the capacity to ensure stability which is the key, by working with the parties of the “republican arc”, without suffer the censorship of others. In doing so, Emmanuel Macron reconnects with this tacit deal with Marine Le Pen which led to the fall of the Barnier government.
A “disinterested and pluralist” Bayrou government?
François Bayrou has a precise idea of the strategy that seems to him to be the right one in this period of political crisis with a National Assembly lacking a sufficient majority to govern alone. The centrist has been pleading for months for the formation of a “disinterested, pluralist and coherent government” made up of “personalities of character”, without specifying the political sides which could or could not take part in it, as Le Figaro recalls. A vision that matches that proposed by Emmanuel Macron.
François Bayrou’s government should unsurprisingly include members of the MoDem and Macronists, but it could also open up to the right and the left on the condition that these forces agree to join the executive. Something difficult to imagine for the left: the PS and the Ecologists refused to participate in a government led by a Prime Minister foreign to the left. On the other hand, the appointment of right-wing ministers, or even the maintenance of certain resigned LR ministers such as Sébastien Lecornu or Bruno Retailleau, are mentioned. The LR party did not object to joining a Bayrou government, but refused to participate in an executive in which socialists would be appointed. During his handover speech with Michel Barnier last Friday on the steps of Matignon, the new Prime Minister did not give the slightest clue about the composition of his government. We will still have to wait. Maybe before Christmas? A schedule “difficult to keep”, according to a relative of the new tenant of Matignon, as indicated in the columns of Politico, Monday December 16, 2024.
