It is a free warning to those who might have forgotten it, having gone overseas for too long to settle the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, or marked by an unfortunate candidacy in the right-wing primary for the presidential election. of 2022. In the hemicycle of the National Assembly, Michel Barnier made his resurrection as a political animal this Tuesday, October 1, after a 3-year public retirement that passed under the radar until his appointment to Matignon.
The former EU chief negotiator in charge of Brexit was expected. And, at the end of an exercise of general policy statement rather agreed, he showed greater vivacity during his responses addressed to the various group presidents, while the clock face already showed past 7 p.m.
The Prime Minister tried to present himself in his “clogs“from Savoyard – “I want to move forward step by step, it’s my mountain temperament” -, even old political barons – “sometimes people say that I’m not funny, too serious“. But to better conceal a few well-felt jabs, calmly slipped to the presidents of the parliamentary groups, in particular those who had particularly targeted him during their response.
By spinning the mountain metaphor, he warned Marine Le Pen: “I always pay attention to where I step“, he indicated, even though the president of the National Rally, who partly holds her political future in her hands, recalled several times that she had “put under democratic surveillance“And to indicate his contentment at being judged.”on his actions“.
Barnier impose son style
Several times, the same pattern was repeated: a joke, even a false ingenuity, then a response, a reframing, without ever raising the tone, often provoking laughter from the interlocutor, a sequence that had become rare in previous years. . You had to see the hilarious faces of the president of the Ecologist and social group, Cyrielle Chatelain, and the president of the Democratic and Republican Left group, Andre Chassaignewhen being ridiculed by the Prime Minister.
“I still have the feeling that you wrote your speech before listening to me. Maybe that it is a impression, but if so, I apologize“, he said ironically to Auvergnat. “I was involved in the ecological issue before you“, reminded the former Minister of the Environment (1993-1995) to the elected representative from Isère, refuting everything”sleeve effect” in this matter.
To the four representatives of the New Popular Front, he made the same reproach: that of an a priori censorship, announced even before having heard the broad outlines of his policy. “You must respect the government“, he slipped into a sermon addressed to Boris Vallaud (Socialists and related people). “OWhere did you think I was trying to scare you?” he asked Mathilde Panot (La France insoumise), falsely surprised by “aggression“from the MP. As if he was emerging from a long hibernation, and discovering the evolution of the content of the debates in the Assembly, he who duly attended it between 1978 and 1993.”The more you will be agressivethe more respectful I will be“, continued “the former youngest” of the Palais-Bourbon, mocking himself at the gap that separates him from that era.
It is perhaps to Gabriel Attal that he reserved the most noted pike. While he criticized – implicitly – the sectarianism of La France insoumise, the Prime Minister announced that he would be “very attentive“to the proposals of the president of the Ensemble pour la République group”to deal with a deficit found upon arrival“, and, implied, also being due to his predecessor at Matignon. “You need to get used to me saying what I think“, he added, calming the reactions which were coming down from the aisles of the hemicycle. And to conclude, taking up the spirit of his general policy declaration: “Trust cannot be decreed, we want to earn it”.
