After the censorship of Michel Barnier by the Assembly, politicians face the “chaos” they maintain

POLITICS – Everything is « chaos ». The word resonated endlessly this Wednesday, December 4 in the hemicycle during the crucial vote on the motion of censure tabled against Michel Barnier and his government. For the second time in the history of the Fifth Republic, the National Assembly forced the Prime Minister and his government to resign by the addition of 331 votes from the National Rally and the New Popular Front. Opening the way to a period filled with uncertainty and without any guarantee that the forces involved will manage to agree on how to get out of it.

“There are only two possible choices: the interest of the country or that of the parties, the choice of responsibility or that of chaos,”warned the president of the Right Republican group Laurent Wauquiez. Like him, all the speakers of the “common base” discussed at length on “the many consequences” of government censorship. Farmers, in the midst of discontent less than a year after the crisis of fall 2023, were among the most cited. Michel Barnier also mentioned the housing sector in crisis, the “loss of purchasing power of the French” with the imposition of new taxpayers due to failure to index the tax scale to inflation, the increase in France's interest rates due to the absence of political stability…

So many arguments undermined by the groups who chose to vote for censorship. “Stop pretending that the lights will go out”lashed out at France Insoumise speaker Éric Coquerel, referring to the special law to renew the 2024 budget. The chaos is already here. It is political, economic and social”he added on the same line as his communist colleague Nicolas Sansu. Ditto for Marine Le Pen who presented censorship as “a necessity to end the chaos” even if for that “institutions force us to mix our voices with those of the extreme left. »

“Betrayal” of the Republican Front everywhere…

Proof of the incongruity of adding the votes of the left alliance and the far right party, the socialist leader Boris Vallaud also affirmed that “This motion of censure is not a tool aimed at chaos either.” But, he adds, “this motion is to govern without ever again negotiating with the extreme right. »

Because beyond the content of the budgetary texts, the parties of the New Popular Front have not digested seeing the now ex-head of government negotiate and accede to the demands of Marine Le Pen when they believe that ” Nothing “ in their proposals was not ” seriously “ discussed. A ” treason “ of the Republican front erected during the legislative elections, deplored Boris Vallaud. Replication of the common base, through the voice of the president of the MoDem group Marc Fesneau: “Dear left-wing colleagues, you criticize the Prime Minister for being under the tutelage of the RN but it is you who are going to ally with them to plunge France into the unknown and chaos.”

Chaos, again and again. The speakers all took turns blaming each other for this: Emmanuel Macron, his dissolution and the Barnier method for some; the left, the RN and the motion of censure for the others. The ball bounced in the aisles of the hemicycle for more than two hours. Ultimately, always the same unresolved question: what next?

…And no solution anywhere?

Because this is now the question that occupies everyone's minds. The fragmented composition of the National Assembly will not change until at least June 2025. Under these conditions, who will be able to lead a government without perpetuating the cycle of censorship? At the podium, almost all camps took advantage of the moment to advance their pawns.

Starting with Éric Coquerel, who pleaded for the appointment of a “NFP government”. Except that such a government would necessarily include rebellious elected officials and would be immediately exposed to censorship, Macronists and the National Rally having already expressed their opposition on this point in the summer. Second option, proposed this time by the national secretary of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier while the debates were in full swing: a chosen head of government “in the ranks of the Ecologists and the left” but not without discussions with the “ macronists » and the “centrists” to find “a solution that is surely imperfect (and which) will not be obvious but which will have the merit of being equal to the urgency of the situation”.

The idea is not so far from that of the socialists. Boris Vallaud, the leader of the Assembly, also calls for a left-wing head of government but with a “non-censorship agreement” et “compromises” on some texts. Here again a hand extended to the Macronists, reiterated live from the platform this Wednesday… And to which Gabriel Attal is on paper in favor. The former prime minister privately advocates for a similar deal and in the Assembly he concluded his speech by addressing the socialists. “ We can oppose without spoiling everything, without censoring”, he said. But on one condition: that Olivier Faure's party “break free” from La France insoumise.

Back to square one. Insoumise France, which has the Élysée in its sights for 2027 or before, has already said all the bad things it thinks of the proposal of its socialist ally. The presidential camp, for its part, does not want to hear about the Mélenchonist or even environmentalist troops. The republican front formed – already in pain – in the legislative elections has little chance of reforming in the hemicycle around a Prime Minister, even if everyone agrees on their desire to limit the role of the RN.

In the middle of everyone, Emmanuel Macron, alone to decide the head of government. The President of the Republic, withdrawn from the national scene since the appointment of Michel Barnier, will address the French this Thursday at 8 p.m. According to a former minister quoted by BFMTV, his ambition is to “appoint a Prime Minister in 24 hours”if possible before the reopening of Notre-Dame scheduled for Saturday, December 7. But faced with the crossed red lines expressed by all camps, only a miracle could unblock the situation. All that remains is for him to light a candle.

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