Michel Barnier could have done without this meeting which has all the makings of a call to order. At around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 18, the new Prime Minister is due to receive his predecessor, Gabriel Attal, at Matignon, now president of the Ensemble pour la République group, which brings together Renaissance deputies. The Hauts-de-Seine MP will be accompanied by his five vice-presidents, Marc Ferracci (French citizens abroad), Stéphanie Rist (Loiret), Julie Delpech (Sarthe), Olga Givernet (Ain) and Pierre Cazeneuve (Hauts-de-Seine). The resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne are also part of the delegation.
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The meeting, demanded the previous evening by Gabriel Attal and his troops, should allow the former European Commissioner’s intentions to be gauged. Does Michel Barnier, from the Les Républicains (LR) party, really intend to give Renaissance elected officials a prominent place in his political system? Thirteen days after his appointment to Matignon, the plans of this right-wing prime minister, who is trying to stage his distance from the head of state, remain impenetrable to the presidential camp. “We don’t understand his method. It’s totally opaque, we know nothing,” criticizes the Renaissance MP for French people abroad, Anne Genetet.
In a message addressed to his deputies on Tuesday evening, Gabriel Attal deplored the lack of ” clear visibility on the political line – in particular on possible tax increases – and on the major government balances” by Michel Barnier, questioning his group’s participation in the government. The mandate that Emmanuel Macron gave to Michel Barnier is to unite. If he were to move away from this political mandate, opposing Michel Barnier and his government would amount to respecting the approach of the head of state., warns the vice-president of the Macronist group Marc Ferracci.
Silent on his political line
However, the 97 Renaissance deputies constitute the main force in the Palais-Bourbon on which Michel Barnier can hope to rely in a fractured Assembly, where the 193 elected members of the New Popular Front (NFP) and the 126 elected members of the National Rally (RN) and their allies threaten to overthrow him sooner or later. “We are not Playmobil. And we will not be the executors or the stooges of Mr. Barnier. If he looks down on us, he will be short of votes, he must not forget that,” sinks Anne Genetet.
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