The RN promises censorship to Xavier Bertrand if he becomes Prime Minister…

“The UDR group in the National Assembly will obviously censor any government headed by Xavier Bertrand,” wrote Éric Ciotti on X. “He went so far as to call for a communist vote to block the Union of the Right, insulting 11 million voters in the process,” complains the Alpes-Maritimes MP who has allied himself with the far right.

It has been seven weeks since Gabriel Attal’s government resigned and was tasked with dealing with current affairs. Forty-nine days without a cabinet meeting, major appointments, or new political decisions. A record of the Fifth Republic, broken on July 26.

This is the time that has passed since the second round of the legislative elections on July 7, which resulted in a National Assembly without a majority. The head of state, who invokes other European democracies where the search for coalitions is the norm, will have waited 47 days before beginning formal consultations with the political forces. In Italy or Belgium, they begin immediately after the vote.

The National Rally, the largest group in the National Assembly with 126 members, would vote for censure against a government led by Xavier Bertrand, we learned on Tuesday from party sources.

The RN would only accept a “technical” government which would establish proportional representation as the voting method for legislative elections before a new dissolution in a year, it was added.

A prime minister, yes, but not at any price. The questioning of the pension reform is a “red line” for the Macronists, according to the EPR (Ensemble pour la République) deputy Sylvain Maillard who spoke on Franceinfo.

“The new Prime Minister will have to build a majority coalition with parliamentarians. I will oppose any removal of the pension reform or the immigration law,” Macronist MP Benjamin Haddad also said on France 2. Charles Rodwell took the same line. “Repealing the pension reform would cause budgetary chaos.”

As a reminder, LR experienced a stinging debacle during the legislative elections, marked by the rapprochement of its president, Éric Ciotti, with the extreme right.

Xavier Bertrand’s party has only 47 representatives in the National Assembly. Far from the RN (126 members or related parties), Ensemble pour la République (99), La France insoumise – Nouveau Front Populaire (72) and the Socialists and related parties (66). Which makes it only the fifth political force in the chamber.

For Emmanuel Macron, the calculation is simple: the group composed of Ensemble pour la République, Democrats and Horizons and Independents, has 163 seats. Added to the 66 of LR, they could supplant the 180 seats of the NFP. Without however ensuring an absolute majority of 289 deputies.

According to our colleagues at ParisianEmmanuel Macron telephoned Gérard Larcher, Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau on Tuesday to discuss the appointment of the head of government. He reportedly told them of his intention to appoint Xavier Bertrand to Matignon, the daily reports. The leading figures of the right-wing party reportedly responded that they were not opposed to it but that they wanted guarantees: there was no question of leading a government that would pursue a left-wing policy.

According to sources close to the Republican Party who spoke to AFP, Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the right discussed on Tuesday morning a possible nomination of Xavier Bertrand to Matignon. But the entourage of the President of the Republic was keen to clarify to the press agency that the head of state continues to “test the hypotheses Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve”.

For Laurent Jacobelli, RN MP for Moselle, “there is deception about the goods”. Interviewed on RMC, the spokesperson for the far-right party believes that Thierry Beaudet, the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) “is a politician”. “He spoke out strongly in favour of euthanasia, that is his right. He demonstrated against the immigration law, so he is an immigrationist. And he despises, he constantly insults, the voters of the National Rally. So he is a divider of the left.”

Bertrand, Cazeneuve, Beaudet… But also Laurent Berger. According to franceinfo, the President of the Republic also offered the position of Prime Minister to the former Secretary General of the CFDT, who refused it. It must be said that the former unionist was a fierce opponent of pension reform…

LR MP Olivier Marleix called on LCI “for the appointment of a right-wing Prime Minister capable of working with everyone, of finding choices of convergence”. But “we never said that we would automatically censor Bernard Cazeneuve”, he was keen to clarify.

On the side of the historic Republicans, there is a united front behind Xavier Bertrand. The mayor of Le Touquet, Daniel Fasquelle, believes that the president of the Hauts-de-France region would make “an excellent Prime Minister”. “I think that he is someone who tomorrow would be capable of putting on the table very concrete proposals that meet the expectations of the French people”, he said on France Bleu Nord.

Surprisingly (no), the far right is on the same line as Éric Ciotti. Thierry Beaudet, who “is quite useless in the current landscape”, is “the one who will allow Emmanuel Macron to fool the French”, believes the RN deputy from the North, Sébastien Chenu, on RTL. “He is hostile to the RN”, “has no project”, and “will more or less continue” the policy of the head of state.

“Thierry Beaudet is against the immigration law and in favor of the legalization of cannabis, he is a man of the left,” said the Alpes-Maritimes MP, Éric Ciotti, on CNews on Tuesday. The former president of the UMP – he is no longer really a member since he got involved with the extreme right – “does not necessarily believe in his nomination” to Matignon. “It is part of the lures that the President of the Republic is waving,” he believes he knows.

The idea of ​​appointing Thierry Beaudet, who is well-versed in the culture of consensus, to Matignon was received with a certain benevolence by the social partners. But it has aroused less enthusiasm within the political class. A senior member of the presidential camp thus questions his ability to “go into the lion’s den in the Assembly”, while on the left, the socialist president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, observes that the person concerned has “never governed” nor “worked to bring together political forces”.

More unexpected because unknown to the general public, the name of Thierry Beaudet emerged on Monday as a possible Prime Minister. The president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), a profile from civil society, has a rather left-leaning sensibility. So to find out everything about this new contender for Matignon, 20 Minutes gives you an update on his career:

Hello everyone. Will this Tuesday mark the epilogue of the political puzzle to find a tenant for Matignon? The answer is uncertain as every day while on Monday a new name appeared on the list of the Élysée. Like Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve, Thierry Beaudet is also mentioned to settle at 57 rue de Varenne. But nothing is certain and Emmanuel Macron can still pull another lead out of his hat.