The Barnier government continues its balancing act: it must convince the Macronist deputies on the budget and on the immigration law. Some, like Darmanin, threaten censorship, while others weaken the ranks of the presidential camp.
19:30 – Working-class neighborhoods, largely forgotten by the Barnier government?
In any case, this is what is stated in a column published in Release this Thursday afternoon a collective of left-wing elected officials. “No direction, no political ambition, budgets at half mast… and no minister for working-class neighborhoods,” they denounce, deploring that the Prime Minister did not have the slightest word for the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods during his general policy speech on Tuesday. For them, “it cannot be a simple omission. It is a desire.” They regret that the alerts that were issued were not taken into account, recalling that during the riots in reaction to Nahel’s death, “the government’s only response was repressive and authoritarian”. Among the signatories of the platform, we find the bosses of the socialists, Olivier Faure, the environmentalists, Marine Tondelier, and the communists, Fabien Roussel.
18:28 – Barnier on the front line, Macron is forgotten
Since his appointment, the Prime Minister wants to show that he is in charge and that he can impose certain choices, both in terms of measures and in terms of the composition of the government, on the Head of State. And if Michel Barnier is also present, Emmanuel Macron is much more discreet. He will observe a period of silence according to the instructions of the Elysée at Franceinfothe idea would be to be forgotten in order to be better seen when he returns to the forefront. Emmanuel Macron’s popularity, which had been at half mast for several months, took a hit after the announcement of the dissolution and again after the appointment of the Prime Minister in dissonance with the result of the legislative elections.
The head of state is expected to remain discreet in the coming weeks, focusing more on measures at European level and leaving a large part of national policy in the hands of his Prime Minister. But this discretion is not an admission of failure for Emmanuel Macron who regrets nothing about the dissolution and his choice for Matignon, he believes on the contrary that this requires a new way of working and that this allows a “step in before” written Franceinfo.
16:29 – 170 LR deputies and senators approve Bruno Retailleau on the rule of law
Bruno Retailleau’s outing on the right-wing state continues to provoke a reaction from the political class. The minister who judged the rule of law “neither intangible nor sacred” in the JDD on September 30 clarified his thoughts on RTL on October 3: “I never wanted to abolish the rule of law. Quite simply, I “I want to move the cursor within the rule of law because there are laws that do not protect the French and I want to move those.” The same day, 170 parliamentarians from LR indicate that they support the position of Bruno Retailleau in a forum: “The rule of law is essential to democracy but it has never been fixed”, write these signatories in a text published by Le Figaro. The signatory deputies and senators call to “overcome any judgment of European courts likely to undermine our constitutional order” in matters of immigration.
The Prime Minister expressed his way of thinking on this subject during his general policy speech, recalling that the rule of law cannot be called into question, but considering that certain measures or the legal arsenal could be brought to evolve.
14:38 – How does the government want to recover 60 billion euros to straighten out the 2025 budget?
Matignon and Bercy have set an objective concerning the recovery of the 2025 budget while the state of the public accounts alarms the Prime Minister: 60 billion euros must be recovered from 2025. Two thirds of this sum must be obtained through a reduction expenses, a reduction which therefore promises to be significant. For this, several measures are planned, in particular the postponement of the revaluation of pensions for six months (the amounts are revised on July 1, 2025 and not on January 1 and the increase will not be retroactive). As for the other 20 billion, they will be the fruit of new revenues made possible in particular by an increase in certain contributions and taxes for some companies or for the wealthiest households. The details of the measures planned to reduce expenditure and generate revenue must be specified in the draft 2025 budget which will be unveiled on October 10, ten days late.
12:50 – The Macronists weakened by the government coalition
The coalition formed between the presidential party and the right has not brought only good things to Emmanuel Macron’s camp. The Ensemble pour la République group in the Assembly has faced several departures of elected officials since the appointment of the government. The fourth desertion is signed by Stella Dupont, an elected official from the center-left who, like the others before her, denounces a government and a policy leaning too far to the right to correspond to her. “I do not share this choice of joining such a majority” she declared to Le Parisien. The MP now associated with the non-registered group evokes “real points of divergence” and cites as an example the “line on immigration, which is absolutely not mine” or “the appointment of Bruno Retailleau” a “profile Politics is not my cup of tea at all. It is also a proximity with the RN which is criticized by the government: the Minister of the Economy is reframed when he places the RN outside the republican arc, but that of the Interior is not when he takes back the ideas of the RN.
The elected official also notes disagreements with the presidential party, particularly on the question of fiscal justice and taxes for the richest. “It has been a point of divergence with the group for a long time, Gabriel Attal knew it.”
11:14 – A “not obvious” agreement within the government
The understanding between the ministers of the Barnier government is not good: the ministers of the Interior and Justice have already opposed their political line through the media, their positions vis-à-vis the RN or their ideas are not the same between LR ministers and those from the presidential camp… And these differences are also visible within the government coalition, recognized government spokesperson Maud Bregeon on BFMTV. “Colocation with the Republicans is not obvious and is not clear. We need to learn to tame ourselves” she indicated, deeming a “breaking-in time” necessary since “it’s been seven years since “we clash during elections, we have differences, we don’t agree on everything.”
10:33 – Less than 1% of French people affected by the “exceptional” contribution for the wealthiest
Michel Barnier announced the contribution of the wealthiest French people to the recovery of the 2025 budget, in particular via a tax increase. This “exceptional” contribution will concern “0.3%” of French households, said the Minister responsible for the Budget and Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, on France 2 this Thursday morning. The ministry mentioned around 75,000 French households affected by the contribution to AFP.
10:18 – The Minister of the Interior wants a new immigration law
Bruno Retailleau wishes to extend the maximum duration of administrative detention of irregular migrants up to 210 days, when they have committed certain crimes. “We need a legislative vector to modify this point” and “a new immigration law”, the Minister of the Interior even declared this morning on RTL. For Bruno Retailleau, “those who arrived irregularly on French territory, overseas, as well as in mainland France, are not intended to stay with us”, he said, adding: “When we violate borders, it must be a crime.” Asked about a short sentence pronounced by a far-right MP, who described him on Tuesday as “a spokesperson for the RN”, he replied: “I am a spokesperson for the French, my obsession is to speak the language that the French understand, not a technocratic language that appeals to the microcosm.
09:41 – Gérarld Darmanin openly criticizes Michel Barnier
“We have to explain what we are going to do with the country,” Gérald Darmanin said this morning on France Info. “I made a commitment to the voters that there will be no tax increase. I will not vote for a tax increase. […] For the moment, the budget as announced seems unacceptable to me,” indicated the former Minister of the Interior, pillar of the EPR party, which is part of the government coalition. The threat from the Tourcoing deputy is not not trivial and demonstrates that the government is having difficulty finding a balance for the upcoming budget “We return to the socialist era of François Hollande when we talk about a tax which corresponds to more than half of the tax cut. we had done,” added Gérald Darmanin, referring to the tax increases mentioned by Michel Barnier.
