And here is the motion of censure. This Wednesday, December 4, less than three months after taking office (he was appointed on September 5), Michel Barnier should experience his last day as Prime Minister.
Indeed, after having voted on the social security budget through article 49-3 of the Constitution (which allows it to avoid a vote by deputies), the New Popular Front and the National Rally submitted motions of censure against the Government.
It is from 4 p.m. that these two texts will be examined in the Assembly and, according to the latest declarations, the left-wing text should obtain the majority of votes (since the RN bloc should also vote for this text). Which would be a first since 1962.
Sum: A 5/5 for the motion of censure?
In the Somme, the two left-wing deputies, François Ruffin and Zahia Hamdane, have officially positioned themselves for censorship of the Government.
The leader of Picardie Debout judges the situation: “Going to choose a man from LR when the Republicans are so weak is a contradiction in terms. We need a government with a different orientation. But we will not get out of this through institutions, we need a return to the people.”
Indeed, François Ruffin calls for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron: “He should think about resigning. This situation reminds me of 1788 with a political and budgetary blockage. At the time, we got out of it through the Estates General. Let’s think about it.”
Zahia Hamdane, LFI MP for the Somme, is also meeting Michel Barnier today to vote on censure: “He could have shown some dignity. Instead, he chooses complaint and inconsistency” she comments after the interview given by the Prime Minister on TF1 and France 2 at 8 p.m.
Then, there remain the three National Rally deputies, Mathias Renault, Jean-Philippe Tanguy and Yaël Ménache.
This Wednesday morning, they are still voting for the motion of censure tabled by the New Popular Front.
Any doubts among the RN?
Three reasons according to Matthias Renault: “1. Fear of change. 2. The concrete weight of the RN in political life, much greater than its own. 3. The fact that we do not allow ourselves to be bought, like amateurs, by the vanities of power.”
As for Yaël Ménache (MP for the fifth constituency of the Somme), she calls for responsibility.
Invited this Wednesday morning on BFM TV, Jean-Philippe Tanguy was questioned about the possibility of not voting for the LFI text which presents the RN as a far-right party with “vile obsessions.”
The MP brushed aside the argument: “We are not going to vote for that. The regulations of the National Assembly say that a motion of censure does not need a text. We are not voting for the LFI text but for censorship of the Government. I don’t care how they talk about us.”
However, Marine Le Pen also spoke about this doubt last night.
Oise : Eric Woerth is distinguished
With six National Rally deputies (out of the 7 constituencies of the Oise department), the vote should therefore receive the same approval in the department. Claire Marais-Beuil, Philippe Ballard, Alexandre Sabatou, Frédéric-Pierre Vos, Michel Guiniot and David Magnier should therefore vote. “We want to block this budget which increases taxes and hits the most vulnerable. This has absolutely nothing to do with an alliance with the NFP,” comments for example Philippe Ballard.
Only Eric Woerth (deputy from the government bloc) should oppose the Government's censorship. “Those who decide to vote for it will decide, basically, to send our country to a place that we do not know,” he assures this Sunday morning at the microphone of Europe 1.
The precedent of 1962
September 20: In a televised speech, General de Gaulle announces that he wants to install the election of the President of the Republic by direct universal suffrage and no longer by parliamentarians. The left and the center are opposed to it.
October 4: A motion of censure is filed against the Pompidou government. “It is the Republic which responds to your project because today's vote will count in history” launched Paul Reynaud, deputy of the national center of independents and peasants, in the hemicycle. Censorship is voted on.
Georges Pompidou is overthrown and submits his resignation to the President. The latter dissolved the National Assembly and asked it to remain in place during the campaign.
In the early legislative elections, the Gaullists came well ahead and General de Gaulle appointed Pompidou to Matignon. He remained there until 1968.
Security budget
Edito de Jean-Pierre de Kerraoul
While we wonder if we will end the year with a government, geostrategic plate tectonics are doing their work, under the double pressure of the election of Donald Trump and the war in Ukraine. The return of the first did not take long to worry in Europe, nor to seize an already coughing Franco-German engine.
On the attitude to adopt with China, Russia or on Mercosur, Berlin favors the commercial angle, without worrying too much about the political consequences; This is how Chancellor Scholz reconnected with Vladimir Putin, looking for a way out of the crisis, something his European counterparts are refusing. Under the pressure of an upcoming and very tough trade war that Trump has promised, Germany seems to be playing solo, worried about Chinese or American retaliatory measures for its ailing automobile industry.
Political instability in France as well as across the Rhine does not make things easier and the French budget deficit does not encourage our neighbors to co-finance with a European loan the major competitiveness effort necessary to catch up with the United States.
Conversely, a rapprochement with the United Kingdom is underway. Pragmatic, the new British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has given up on dreams of rediscovered imperial grandeur and is not counting on Trumpian generosity. It is therefore seeking to establish good agreements with its EU neighbors, in particular France.
Paris and London are also on the same firm stance for Ukraine, convinced that a de facto victory for Putin would be a catastrophe for the whole of Europe. The two capitals have agreed to the use of their long-range missiles into the interior of Russia and they would be ready to send troops to Ukraine, under international conditions, at least as an interposition force.
The Europe of defense, more necessary than ever, will firstly be that of the two best armies, French and British, capable of drawing others with them and thus opposing sufficient power to Moscow. This is obviously a major political choice, it is also a financial problem for stewardship to follow. For our safety, it would be better if we had a budget.
