The rebels blame the fracture of the New Popular Front (NFP) on the Socialist Party (PS) after its refusal to vote on the motion of censure against the government of François Bayrou this Thursday, January 16. The culmination of weeks of tension.
The treason trial brought by the rebels against the socialists for several weeks delivered its verdict this Thursday, January 17: by not voting for the censure presented at their initiative, the latter are guilty, according to them.
The crime? That of “fracturing” the NFP, to use the words of the leader of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The same underlining, shortly before the vote, that the three other left-wing groups – his own, as well as those of the ecologists and the communists – would vote in favor of the provision. This ultimately received only 131 votes out of the 288 necessary for its adoption.
At the end of the session, Mathilde Panot drives the point home from the National Assembly. “Today, the Socialist Party has chosen to side with the problem, with Emmanuel Macron,” says the leader of the rebellious deputies.
“You must not be very comfortable”
What followed was a salty exchange on BFMTV between LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard and socialist Jérôme Guedj. Not a PS deputy like any other: between him and the rebels tensions have been glaring since the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
To the point that the elected official from Essonne, formerly close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon during their time together in the PS – had refused the nomination of the New Popular Front in the legislative elections last July.
On our set, he has very little taste for attacks against his training: “no one is there to give me certificates of good or bad left. Of treachery or loyalty. Loyalty for La France insoumise, It’s called submission.”
A few minutes later, Manuel Bompard is on duplex from the National Assembly. “When we are in opposition to the government, we prevent its policy from being implemented,” he declared before telling the socialist: “you must not be very comfortable in your sneakers this evening .” Response from the person concerned: “I can’t stand lecturing people”.
The rebels pushed the socialists to censor
The culmination of weeks of tension. They emerged during consultations with the new government and then grew stronger as the socialists – joined at the negotiating table by the communists and ecologists – worked on a non-censorship agreement.
Faced with this prospect, the rebels spared no effort to push the socialists to line up behind censorship. Those who do not vote for the motion “will have broken” with the alliance of left-wing parties, Manuel Bompard warned this Tuesday. The same day, Jean-Luc Mélenchon threatened to put “options” on the constituencies of recalcitrant deputies. In other words, to present candidates against them in the event of early legislative elections.
-Failed, even if 8 of the 66 socialist deputies voted for censure. It must be said that the central demand for a repeal of the pension reform, then a “suspension” of this law, finally led to a “conclave” between the social partners announced by François Bayrou during his policy declaration general this Tuesday. The Prime Minister also specified that, in the absence of an agreement, the current reform would apply. Far from what the roses hoped for.
Several concessions from François Bayrou
They nevertheless led the Prime Minister to do a little more in recent days. In a letter this Thursday, he made two concessions promised the day before. On pensions, the meeting of the social partners in a “conclave” will result in a “new bill”, even if the latter “do not reach an overall agreement”.
The “progress” resulting from this work can be presented, “subject to political agreement and a maintained financial balance”.
Concerning National Education, the abandonment of the elimination of 4,000 teaching positions is confirmed, as well as the creation of 2,000 additional positions supporting students with disabilities.
Another gesture from the Prime Minister, apart from those already made by his predecessor Michel Barnier: he agrees to renounce the extension of the waiting period from one to three days in the event of sick leave for civil servants. While confirming, on the tax side, the proposed tax on high incomes.
“Win every possible victory day after day”
Enough for socialists not to censor, at least for now. They are in fact emancipating themselves from the rebels, while hoping to have more influence during budgetary discussions. From the podium of the National Assembly, the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, continued to dig in his wake this Thursday, he who distinguished the “left which works” from that “which bawls” at the microphone of BFMTV on Tuesday.
“Our vocation is not always to limit ourselves to setting a date, while always waiting for the next election. It is to achieve every possible victory day after day,” he said, before addressing the rebels. : “if you think that what I am saying here is of no interest to the French, who are not happy to see a left that proposes, a left that advances, a left that makes the government give in, then say so.”
Eager to clarify the position of his camp, the deputy for Seine-et-Marne insisted: “We remain in the opposition”. By also threatening to table a motion of censure, “if we have the feeling that the debate is locked” on pension reform. There, rebels and socialists would surely be on the same line.
