Faced with threats of censorship brandished by the left and the far right, Michel Barnier pleaded for “stability” and defended “the general interest” beyond “small schemes”.
“The time I have ahead of me depends on a possible coalition of opposites, if I may say so, in the National Assembly. I don't know if that will happen. I'm ready for it,” declared the Prime Minister before the 106th Congress of Mayors, assuring that the French want “stability”.
Also weakened within his government by the Macronists who contest his tax measures, he considered that there was “a common interest more important than our own interests in working together”, adding, in an allusion to the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand, that “when we are loyal (…) we have a better chance of facing adversity”.
The tenant of Bercy triggered a mini-storm by opposing the Prime Minister on the elimination of reductions in employer contributions, even reduced from four to three billion euros by the Senate. They displease Gabriel Attal, leader of the Macronist deputies, for whom they go against the policy of sustained supply since 2017.
– “Back to the wall” –
Beyond the budget, a “particularly difficult moment”, Michel Barnier wanted to raise “the horizon line” and promised to present at the start of next year “around fifty” measures which will be “started” in the three years. “I am not only here at Matignon to, with the government, manage defensively, with my back to the wall, a difficult budget and make frantic savings,” he explained.
After the RN, the left, in a column in Le Monde on Thursday, in turn threatened censorship if “Michel Barnier” persists in wanting to bypass Parliament and trample on the July 7 vote of French women and French to impose its budget by 49.3″.
The text, aiming to show the unity of the New Popular Front, is co-signed by Manuel Bompard (LFI), Olivier Faure (PS), Fabien Roussel (PCF), Marine Tondelier (Les Écologues) but also Lucie Castets, always presented as ” candidate of the New Popular Front in Matignon”.
A way of reminding us, the day after Marine Le Pen's declarations threatening to vote for censorship “if the purchasing power of the French is reduced”, that the left is the primary opposition force, even if it cannot bring down the government only with the support of the RN.
Like Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leaders of the left will be received at Matignon at the beginning of next week but it is unlikely that they will come out satisfied.
– Censorship, and after? –
The possibility of a financial crisis, agitated by the executive in the event of rejection of the budget, just like the call “for stability” launched by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron since the G20, hardly seems to have any influence on them.
Especially since, according to an Elabe poll, 51% of French people (including 61% of RN voters and 72% of NFP voters) want a motion of censure.
However, the left leaders do not mention in their forum a common strategy after overthrowing Michel Barnier.
Even though Lucie Castets remains their official candidate, my first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure indicated on BFMTV that he does not believe that Emmanuel Macron will call her to Matignon.
If part of the socialists could support a nomination of Bernard Cazeneuve, this would imply an alliance with the central bloc which would divide them and would be rejected by the rest of the NFP.
And, in the event of a prolonged crisis, Olivier Faure judges that an early presidential election “would not be a good solution” unlike LFI which is banking on it to impose a candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
On the Macronist side, if Antoine Armand received the support of his Macronist counterpart from Industry Marc Ferracci, he was tackled on RMC by that of Transport, LR François Durovray, for whom “we must express ourselves as a family, not outside.”
And Mr. Armand revived speculation about an exit from the Macronist government by saying he was “above all” a member of the “Together for the Republic family” before being “Michel Barnier's minister”.
