The pressure on the government does not only come from outside with the National Rally. It also comes from within, as Gérald Darmanin and several deputies showed this weekend.
For weeks, it has been explained that Marine Le Pen will have the right of life and death over the government in the Assembly. But is this really so true?
Because to overthrow the government, the New Popular Front would have to ally itself with the votes of the RN, which they have always refused to do. If the opposite is a little more possible, nothing says that the National Rally will achieve its goals.
Conversely, what becomes more and more obvious as the weeks go by is that the real danger for Michel Barnier could in reality come from within the coalition, and in particular from the ex-Renaissance who have taken out of government.
We of course think of Gabriel Attal, who still has not digested being kicked out after only eight months at Matignon, and who maintains constant pressure on his successor. But also to Gérald Darmanin who had little taste for the way in which Michel Barnier excluded him from the government, he who wanted Foreign Affairs.
Illustration this weekend with Gérald Darmanin who made it known during his political return that – of course – he supported “the government of Michel Barnier” – but a bit like the rope supports the hanged man.
“I know that many of us will not be able to support a government that would increase taxes: that would be contrary to everything positive that we have done for the French,” he said.
Before Darmanin’s exit, two Macronist deputies, Charles Rodwell and Mathieu Lefèvre, close to Darmanin, published with our colleagues at the Tribune Sunday a text co-signed by 25 EPR deputies deeming it “unthinkable” to increase taxes after seven years of reduction.
We saw more solid support on the eve of a general policy declaration. But the adage in politics is well known: “Keep me from my friends. As for my enemies, I will take care of them.”
Budget tensions
All this does not really bode well for the examination of the finance bill which will begin with the tax part. If the first part of the text is not voted on, it will pose big problems for the future. The examination could be blocked.
However, we must not forget that the majority of the 40 to 50 billion euros of efforts that will need to be made next year must overwhelmingly relate to savings in spending, and therefore to the second part of the budgetary text. .
The Macronists have had no trouble defending tax cuts for seven years, the catastrophic situation in which we find ourselves is also their legacy. The political game is one thing, but a little harmony to clean up all this mess would still be a good idea.
