Bayrou under pressure: summit meeting in Matignon

At the end of a first series of consultations, François Bayrou invites the political forces, without LFI or the RN, on Thursday to Matignon, before finalizing his government, but many obstacles remain.

The Prime Minister invites at 2 p.m. the presidents of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and of the Senate Gérard Larcher, as well as “the presidents of parties and groups who have had responsibility for the affairs of the country at one period or another of the Fifth Republic,” he wrote in a letter.

A formulation which excludes the National Rally and its ally, Éric Ciotti’s UDR, as well as La France insoumise, founded in 2016.

François Bayrou “despises the National Rally and its millions of voters”, castigated the vice-president of the party Sébastien Chenu.

The welcome is also cool among some guests but all should honor their participation.

The Ecologists announced on Thursday morning that they would go to Matignon, calling, however, not to pursue a policy “disavowed by the voters”. Same tone among the communists, who also intend to “urge the Prime Minister to accelerate aid to the inhabitants of Mayotte”.

The Prime Minister’s first steps are “completely unsuccessful,” Marine Tondelier commented on Wednesday on BFMTV. He has been “the laughing stock of the French” since his return trip to his town of Pau, in the midst of the crisis in Mayotte.

“He must move on pensions”, “on public services”, “on taxes, on solidarity”, launched the president of PS deputies Boris Vallaud on Sud radio, saying he was “worried” about the different signals received five days ago.

Appointed on Friday, François Bayrou has since received political leaders and parliamentarians on rue de Varenne, group by group, in official or more informal meetings.

His first week in Matignon was especially marked by the barrage of criticism on his presence Monday evening at the Municipal Council of Pau, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, when a cyclone had just ravaged Mayotte.

He had to explain this on Tuesday for his first session at the National Assembly, without succeeding in silencing the critics. All while increasing the number of trips to the Élysée for the formation of the government.

Emmanuel Macron being in Mayotte on Thursday, before then going to French troops in Djibouti, several actors are talking about a government announcement on Sunday. The two executive houses give no date.

In his letter to the parties, Mr. Bayrou invokes, alongside the political and budgetary crisis, the situation of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which has suffered “probably the most serious natural disaster in the history of France for several centuries”.

He also mentions New Caledonia, believing that “these two situations added together” place political leaders “faced with unprecedented responsibilities”.

Enough to bring about a form of union? Without a majority in the Assembly, the centrist, who has been advocating for decades a government bringing together various sensitivities, is facing strong demands from the Republicans (LR) on the right and growing attempts at censorship on the left.

The meeting format is reminiscent of that of nine days ago around Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée, where scenarios of non-censorship of oppositions were discussed, in exchange for an absence of recourse to 49.3 by the government or upon dissolution by the president.

But the LRs are increasing the pressure. On Wednesday, François Bayrou received the resigning Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, who had just declared that the conditions were “not met” for his continuation at Place Beauvau.

“I have no red line,” however, clarified Thursday on TF1 Gérard Larcher who judges that it is necessary “to provide remedies for the return to budgetary balance and the question of security.” “It is urgent to have a government,” he insisted.

Same criticism with reversed front coming from the left: “If he comes to offer us the same budget that Mr. Barnier had proposed (…), we censor,” insisted the communist Fabien Roussel.

The meeting at Matignon is “a pipe dream,” said Mathilde Panot. The head of the deputies of La France insoumise says she “believes” that the four components of the New Popular Front (PS, PCF, Ecologists and LFI) will vote on the motion of censure that her group will table on January 14, after François’ general policy declaration Bayrou.

“This is the moment (…) which will decide who is in opposition to the government and who supports this government,” she insisted on RMC-BFMTV.

The Prime Minister only received 36% satisfaction according to an Ifop survey for Sud Radio on Thursday, compared to 52% and 53% for his predecessors Michel Barnier and Gabriel Attal, when they started at Matignon.