The Prime Minister receives Marine Le Pen on Monday at Matignon to discuss the budget, which the president of the RN group in the Assembly threatens to reject.
This is their first meeting: Michel Barnier receives Marine Le Pen in Matignon, Monday November 25 at 8:30 a.m., the first meeting in a series of meetings with the leaders of the opposition parliamentary groups. As president of the largest group in the Assembly, the member for Pas-de-Calais opens the ball, accompanied by Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy president of the National Rally (RN) group and referent on economic subjects. The budget will obviously be at the center of their discussions, while the far-right party is brandishing more than ever the threat of government censorship.
On RTL on Wednesday, Marine Le Pen assured that she and her 123 deputies could vote on the motion of censure that the left will table when the government draws 49.3 to have the budget adopted in December. “We will not accept that the purchasing power of the French is further reduced, (…) it is a red line. And if, in fact, this red line is exceeded, we will vote for censorship”hammered the three-time presidential candidate, a week after thes indictments to the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front, in which she risks a sentence of ineligibility.
At the beginning of October, the National Rally had nevertheless chosen to abstain during the vote on the motion of censure carried by the left, thus allowing Michel Barnier to remain in Matignon. A few days earlier, the brand new Prime Minister had telephoned Marine Le Pen to refute the remarks of her Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, who had excluded the RN from the Republican arc, in an interview on France Inter.
But since the episode of the phone call, relations between Matignon and the RN have weakened, if not significantly refreshed. “I find it odd, to say the least, that Michel Barnier doesn't consider us: he totally ignores us.”annoyed Renaud Labaye, the secretary general of the RN group in the Assembly, to franceinfo on November 15. The same day, however, he was able to transmit this message to the Matignon teams, who received it with Ambroise de Rancourt, Marine Le Pen's chief of staff.
Four days later, Matignon announced that Michel Barnier was going to receive all the leaders of the opposition parliamentary groups, starting with Marine Le Pen. A flower offered to the flame party? Not at all, according tohe services of the Prime Minister, who add that this series of interviews had been in the works for a long time. “It was a promise from the Prime Minister to exchange and dialogue with the oppositions. And it is not his habit to give in to pressure“we assure Matignon, for minimize the reach of the RN’s media releases.
“It’s a very European approach to seeking compromise, and not only with the RN”insists an advisor, taking care not to give too much importance to the meeting with Marine Le Pen compared to those planned with the other group leaders. “Receiving Marine Le Pen and Mathilde Panot on the same day, that demeans Le Pen a little”smiles a Common Core parliamentarian, before continuing: “We must not give them victimization points, so we must treat them like the others, at least on protocol.”
As this meeting approaches, the RN troops are maintaining pressure on the government, in the hope of negotiating measures. “We waited, but for the moment there is absolutely nothing in the text that corresponds to our expectations, whether in terms of structural reforms or purchasing power”lamented Philippe Ballard, the deputy for Oise, at the microphone of franceinfo on Sunday.
“Between zero, and taking up some of our proposals, there is room.”
Philippe Ballard, RN deputyon franceinfo
The far-right elected official added that in the current state of the text, censorship by the RN was “inevitable”. “Michel Barnier creates the conditions for censorship”added Sébastien Chenu, the deputy from the North, on LCI.
In Matignon on Monday, the leader of the RN deputies should renew her requests for measures to improve the purchasing power of the French, and reiterate her opposition to the increase in the tax on electricity. The government hopes to save 3 billion euros by increasing this tax which would have the effect of inflating the bills of the French. The measure was rejected in the Assembly by RN deputies, but also those of the New Popular Front and the Republicans, and Michel Barnier opened the door to its abandonment.
This is the whole difficulty for the Barnier government: how to deal with an opposition party which can overthrow it at the first 49.3 opportunity, without giving it too much importance? “For the working classes, if there is an effort to be made in this budget, it should not be Le Pen who gets the point. For the moment, Michel Barnier respects and speaks with everyone, including the RN, but he does not negotiate with them“underlines Antoine Vermorel-Marques, LR deputy for the Loire.
In theentourage of the Prime Minister, we recall that “exchanges have been taking place for several weeks” with Marine Le Pen's party, through various channels and via different personalities, as with other opposition groups. A way to play down the issues around Monday's meeting between Michel Barnier and the leader of the National Rally. Especially since part of the common base believes that the RN will not carry out its threats of censorship.
“I don't believe for a second that they would vote for a motion of censure 15 days before Christmas, that would plunge France, without a government and without a budget, into economic chaos that we have never seen, and the RN knows it Alright.”
A Macronist deputyat franceinfo
“If Marine Le Pen is in the mindset of overturning the table to precipitate a presidential election, she will press the censorship button whenever she wants”advances for his part Antoine Vermorel-Marques.The suspense should continue throughout this budgetary marathon, until mid-December. Once 49.3 has been drawn and the NFP's motion of censure has been tabled, the National Rally will have to decide whether or not to show its card. Until then, the far-right party visibly intends to keep it in hand to maintain pressure on the government.
