On Tuesday, the two presidents of the right-wing parliamentary groups, Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau, brought together elected officials to inform them of the progress made in negotiations with the head of state in choosing a Prime Minister. If a few weeks ago, and even a few days ago, the LR leaders were only pleading for support “for texts that are going in the right direction”, without participating in a coalition, and even less in the government, the tone has since changed.
More than 50 days of power vacuum have led to weariness and concern about seeing a Prime Minister from the NFP. The vast majority of right-wing parliamentarians are now campaigning for the president of the Hauts de France region to be the next tenant of Matignon. On one condition, however, that Xavier Bertrand implements “a right-wing program”. “There would be nothing worse than one of ours being Prime Minister to implement solutions other than ours,” justified the president of the LR group in the Senate, this Wednesday on BFM TV.
The senator from Vendée is referring here to the “legislative pact” presented by LR last July and which he wishes to see applied. “On this point we had a long discussion with Xavier Bertrand and he committed to these points.”
What are they? On July 22, Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau presented 73 measures, divided into thirteen bills intended “to find solutions, to put something positive on the table.”
Return of authority and fight against “welfare”
This pact contains many measures already supported by the senatorial right in recent months, and some of them adopted by the Upper House at first reading. It is structured around three main axes: the restoration of authority, the reindustrialization of territories and the strengthening of local public services.
On the authority side, the right intends to reinstate minimum sentences, end certain sentencing limitations and establish a presumption of self-defense for law enforcement. There is also talk of an overhaul of juvenile justice, with the resumption of a measure defended by Éric Ciotti: the elimination of family allowances in the event of a minor’s conviction. The pact also intends to tackle “uncontrolled immigration”, and takes up some of the measures of the immigration law censored by the Constitutional Council at the beginning of the year.
To promote reindustrialization, the right wants to lower production taxes, put in place a moratorium on standards and increase investment in nuclear power, with a target of 60% in the energy mix.
The LR want a major law for access to care and the fight against medical deserts, which would involve tax exemptions and a debureaucratization of hospital work and medical practices. Laurent Wauquiez had insisted on his old refrain aimed at “fighting welfare”, by proposing in particular that work be part of the ten criteria for access to social housing. For example, there is talk of establishing a single social aid that is capped at 70% of the minimum wage, but also of a new reform of unemployment insurance, “by sanctioning those who abuse the system to better help those who are really looking for a job”.
Agriculture and energy
Among the points that the senatorial right intends to highlight, we also find legislative work stopped due to the dissolution. Adopted in the National Assembly, the agricultural orientation bill had been largely reworked in the Senate’s economic affairs committee, notably by LR senator Laurent Duplomb, a close friend of Laurent Wauquiez and author of a bill “on a competitiveness shock in favor of the French farm”. “We had made proposals to guarantee fair competition in international trade but also to fight against agri-bashing, in particular by putting an end to over-transpositions”, recalled Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, the LR president of the economic affairs committee, in July.
Another measure concerns energy independence through investment in “nuclear excellence”. A bill to this effect from LR senator Daniel Gremillet was adopted in committee at the end of May.
Finally, several red lines for the right were specified and which would result in the immediate sanction of any government that crossed them. The increase in public deficits and taxes and a reduction in pensions.
