Failing to obtain Bercy, Laurent Wauquiez refuses to join the government but opens the way to participation LR

The senators of the Les Républicains (LR) party said they were in favor on Saturday evening of the participation of their political family in the government that François Bayrou is trying to form, while the deputies must also consult in the evening, we learned from parliamentary sources.

Laurent Wauquiez's party has still not formally made a decision but it seems inclined to join the team of the centrist leader, appointed at the end of last week to Matignon.

The senators consulted by videoconference early Saturday evening, while Laurent Wauquiez, head of the LR group in the Assembly, spoke a little later to his colleagues, according to a parliamentary source and an LR source.

According to several LR senators, the largest group in the upper house considered that “the conditions are met” for LR to participate in government. On the other hand, evoking his “personal case”according to participants in this meeting, Laurent Wauquiez declared: “The only possible configuration for me was Bercy with a clear roadmap, in particular no tax increase. There is no such roadmap. [François Bayrou] offered me something else, I declined”.

The presidents of the two 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 in writing on Sunday. “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 the priority of reducing public spending”the sovereign and in particular immigration, the revaluation of work, territories and farmers, he specified.

Prime Minister François Bayrou hopes that the composition of his government can be announced before Christmas, and perhaps even before the end of the weekend. President Emmanuel Macron, traveling to Djibouti and Ethiopia, will return to Paris on Sunday morning, which offers the possibility of appointing the government.

François Bayrou hoped to broaden the government base on which his predecessor Michel Barnier relied, but the socialists closed the door to participation in his team. On the other hand, the LR seemed willing to be part of it and to continue the government experiment started with Michel Barnier.

The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, a figure of LR and very marked on the right, has made it known that he wishes to continue in his functions. And François Bayrou declared that he wanted to keep him in his team.

“I think that Mr. Retailleau has shown in recent weeks and months that he has found decisions and directions that respond to part of what public opinion is asking for”he declared Thursday on France 2.