This is the meeting that could have changed everything. Connected by videoconference at midday, the deputies of Gabriel Attal’s EPR group (ex-Renaissance) know that they have a decisive choice to make. Either, they support the social security budget over which they have many disagreements. Or, they oppose it. In the first case, they remain faithful to their alliance with Michel Barnier and do not add crisis to crisis. In the second, they announce the end of the alliance and the future censorship of the government.
After an hour of discussions, and after an already tense first meeting on Tuesday, the decision was taken unanimously: the first group of the coalition will support the social security budget… But not at all out of conviction. “We vote not out of substantive support, but out of political responsibility,” agrees one participant, the Macronist Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade. His colleague Mathieu Lefèvre recognizes this: “The political situation does not allow us to do things differently. »
This assumed embarrassment stems from a deep disagreement with Michel Barnier. For the sake of savings, the Prime Minister initially wanted to cancel 4 billion euros of exemptions from employer contributions, which amounts to increasing the cost of labor. A red line for members of the presidential camp who have made lower taxes for businesses a political marker for seven years. Faced with this strong protest movement which could derail everything, the head of government agrees to a gesture: reduce these 4 billion euros to 1.5 billion.
The ex-Renaissance deputies are divided. On the one hand, those who find the compromise acceptable and on the other, those who refuse any euro increase in employer contributions. “It’s 50-50 with us,” notes a tenor in the group. Hence the gray smoke this Wednesday morning: Gabriel Attal’s deputies will vote on the social security budget but will oppose article 6 on the cost of labor, during its examination this Wednesday afternoon in the Assembly , behind closed doors of the joint committee (CMP).
A lip service that allows the most angry MPs, like former minister Marie Lebec, to join the ranks. She is far from being the only one. On Tuesday, Élisabeth Borne described this budget as a “catalogue of horrors”. Enough to leave traces in this LR-macronist coalition which has never been so fragile.
