As if to defy danger, Michel Barnier invited the one who could be fatal to his destiny. Monday, November 25 in the morning, Marine Le Pen should be received by the Prime Minister at Matignon. The 73-year-old former European commissioner, renowned for his proven negotiating skills during Brexit, thinks, thanks to this meeting, to dissuade the president of the deputies of the National Rally (RN) group from doing so fall, he and his government? It's been a few days since the far-right leader, at the heart of a trial for embezzlement of European funds, has brandished the threat of executive censorship capable of plunging the country into the unknown.
The scenario has already been written by the RN: between December 18 and 20, the Prime Minister could have to trigger article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the 2025 budget adopted, without a vote by Parliament, aimed at saving the country 60 billion euros. The far-right party would then give the kiss of death by contributing its votes (140 including those of Eric Ciotti's elected officials) to a censure filed by the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP, 192 deputies). The government of Michel Barnier would be overthrown.
“It has become inevitable”judges MEP Philippe Olivier, close advisor to Marine Le Pen. “The point is to block a fifty-first bankruptcy budget and a good-for-nothing government that follows the same political line as Borne and Attal [les deux précédents premiers ministres d’Emmanuel Macron] »supports Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy (RN) for the Somme and loyal to the elected official for Pas-de-Calais.
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Bluff? The ministers, like Michel Barnier, seem to have integrated the disastrous hypothesis. On November 19, interviewed on France Inter, Catherine Vautrin (in charge of territories), punctuates her sentences with a “if we are still here at the start of the year”. The head of government feigns resignation. “I am ready to leave tomorrow morning if the conditions are no longer right (…) to reform this country”, he warned, on November 15, on France Bleu, recalling that he did not “rolled on the ground” to get his job.
“The goodwill towards Barnier is over”
“Michel Barnier is aware of the precariousness of his situation. He lives with this sword of Damocles”puts an advisor from Matignon into perspective. Upon his appointment on September 5, the former European commissioner was described as “under surveillance” of the extreme right. The Lepenist party has the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, when it and its “common base” (the right and the center) do not have a majority. “Nothing can be done without the RN”, boasted, on September 7, Jordan Bardella, president of the party.
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