It is a vote that will go down in the annals of the Fifth Republic. The motion of censure tabled against the government of Michel Barnier by the deputies of the New Popular Front (NFP) was adopted this Wednesday, December 4 around 8:20 p.m., with 331 votes in favor. Immediate consequence of this vote: the Social Security financing bill, for which Michel Barnier had held his government responsible, is rejected. The Prime Minister and his ministerial team are now considered to have resigned. A completely unprecedented situation in the middle of the budgetary debate.
“The debt will remain there, it will not disappear by the enchantment of a motion of censure”, tackled Michel Barnier from the podium, estimating that “in some time, this reality will be reminded of any government, whatever it be. » “This motion of censure that you are preparing to approve, in a conjunction of opposites, will make everything more serious and difficult. This is what I am sure of,” wanted to alert the tenant of Matignon before the solemn vote of parliamentarians.
This is the first time that the activation of article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution has resulted in the fall of a government. The only precedent: the censorship of the government of Georges Pompidou, on October 4, 1962, but this took place after the filing of a spontaneous motion, as provided for by article 49, paragraph 2.
“You will fall into dishonor”
This Wednesday, to overthrow the government, at least 288 votes were needed because the absolute majority threshold of 289 out of 577 deputies, usually necessary for the adoption of a motion of censure, was not required due to the three partial legislative elections in progress. The group led by Marine Le Pen had also tabled its own motion, but it was that of the NFP which was put to the vote first because it had a greater number of signatures.
“Your failure was announced and it was ultimately bitter,” launched Éric Coquerel, LFI president of the finance committee, from the podium. “You will fall into dishonor,” said this close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, criticizing the “attempts to compromise with the extreme right” carried out by the government. “This aspiration for a reactionary front is an insult to all the voters who allowed your meager support to still sit in this chamber to act as a barrier,” thundered the elected official from Seine-Saint-Denis. This Monday, Michel Barnier made the choice to hold the government responsible for adopting the Social Security budget. This decision came after several last-minute budgetary renunciations, such as the cancellation of the surcharge on electricity or the reduction of credits allocated to State Medical Aid.
So many announcements interpreted by left-wing oppositions and many commentators as concessions made to the National Rally, to obtain the leniency of Marine Le Pen and her 123 deputies who have continued to toughen their tone against the executive in recent years. weeks. Wasted effort, it is precisely thanks to the votes of the RN that the motion tabled by the left could be adopted.
« The worst policy would be not to censor such a budget, such a government, such a collapse”
“We wanted to believe that you would not be the simple continuation of a system rejected during the last elections but a sincere builder,” declared Marine Le Pen during a speech shaken by boos. “You refused until the end to retain even a reasonable but essential part of our measures,” declared the member for Pas-de-Calais about the numerous budgetary red lines she had set. “You only gave one answer: tax, tax, always tax! 40 billion euros in new taxes, including 20 billion for businesses,” she denounced.
The daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen also brushed aside the accusations of the central bloc, which accuses her of throwing the country into chaos while the public deficit is on a historic slide. “The worst policy would be not to censor such a budget, such a government, such a collapse.” Theorizing a possible resignation of Emmanuel Macron, “president of a Republic which is no longer quite, through his fault, the Fifth”, she concluded her speech on the alternation which “will come soon, perhaps very quickly “.
Michel Barnier invokes “the serious consequences” of a lack of budget
Arriving at the podium at the end of the joint discussion to respond to his detractors, Michel Barnier received a long ovation from the deputies of the central bloc. “It is not for pleasure that I presented almost exclusively difficult measures in this budget,” declared the Prime Minister before defending the main provisions contained in the Social Security financing bill. “We prepared it in two weeks,” he recalled.
He detailed at length the “serious consequences” that the absence of a budget would have before the end of the year: “Loss of purchasing power for the French”, “lack of recruitment of police officers or soldiers”, or even the impossibility of financing the “long-awaited” measures for farmers.
“The inconsistency of the sowers of chaos”
During other speeches, government supporters widely denounced the association of the voices of the left and the RN on the same text. “There is so much to say about the alliance between the RN and LFI which is being formed,” said former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, now leader of the Macronist deputies, before quoting Alexis de Tocqueville: “In politics, the community of hatreds almost always forms the basis of friendships. » He called on the socialists to dissociate themselves from their alliance with the rebels. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon, present in the stands, listened religiously to the LFI speaker, then to Madame Le Pen. He got up and left when Boris Vallaud (leader of the socialist deputies, editor’s note) spoke. He respects her more than you! », he pointed out.
“The voices of the extremes mix creating an objective alliance to bring down the government, what next? », questioned Horizons MP Laurent Marcangeli. Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the LR group, singled out “the inconsistency of the sowers of chaos”, before directly questioning the boss of the RN deputies. “Madame Le Pen, you are preparing to vote for those who treat the police as murderers, you are preparing to vote for those who treat terrorists as resistance fighters,” said the former president of the Auvergne-Rhône Regional Council. Alps.
For his part, PS Boris Vallaud spoke of his “non-censorship project to govern without 49.3” after the departure of the Barnier government. “A left-wing Prime Minister, leading the Nation’s policy in line with the will of the voters […]and an Assembly that seeks compromises,” he summarized.
