The support is firm, but not without conditions. On the set of Public Sénat, UDI president Hervé Marseille affirmed that he would support Michel Barnier’s government, the day after his meeting with the Prime Minister. “We wish the government success. […] . Yes, we will support him, but the problem is not whether we support him: we will wait to know what he proposes to us.” But he insists: saying that we want a government to succeed does not mean unconditional support: “It is never a carte blanche.”
To hasten without haste
The leader of the centrist senators also discussed the composition of the government with the Prime Minister, without going into details. “The composition of the government is his business. We discussed a certain number of possibilities for centrists who could come and strengthen his team. I hope that there will be ministers from the UDI.” For Hervé Marseille, the essential question is to be able to “come together” in order to “meet the expectations of the French people.” “I am not going to measure our support by saying “support without participation” or “participation without support.” No. What is clear is that there is a need to come together, a need to meet the expectations of the French people.”
He also stressed that it was necessary for the Prime Minister to take his time to form his team: “We must hurry without rushing, we have until next week to find the balance. Because if you do something that doesn’t hold up, then we’ll be kicking ourselves.” One thing is certain: Hervé Marseille will not be part of a future Barnier government. The centrist dismissed the possibility: “No, my place is not in the government, I am in the Senate.”
Caution over Immigration Ministry
Once the government is formed, it will finally be able to get to work and tackle the “urgent agenda items”, such as the budget. But the centrist thinks that the difficulties will not hold up in the debates around the budget: “I hear that we are talking a lot about immigration again.” While he is not opposed to the immigration file being reopened, he remains vigilant about the modalities: “It depends how far we go and how we do it. We are going to see all sorts of proposals resurface.” As for the possibility raised in the press of a return of a Ministry of Immigration, the centrist reserves his judgment: “We have to see what its outline is and if it is true.” But for Hervé Marseille, the principle does not constitute a “red line”: “We cannot start every morning by saying “this is a red line. We will let it be, we will see what the content is, what is proposed.”
