DECRYPTION. Who will be the new Prime Minister? After the motion of censure, Emmanuel Macron takes note and consults to replace Michel Barnier

The day after the historic censorship of Michel Barnier's government – ​​the first since 1962 and the second of the Fifth Republic – Emmanuel Macron's word was expected. If it was necessary, it is far from being sufficient to circumscribe the political crisis opened by the dissolution which he decided, alone, on June 9 and exacerbated since Wednesday evening.

Macron castigates “an anti-republican front”

While all the polls show that the French hold him responsible for the current chaotic political situation – much more than the RN, LFI, the NFP or Michel Barnier – the head of state outlined for the first time a – slight – mea culpa on the failed dissolution. It “was not understood”, “many blamed me” and “it’s my responsibility”, he admitted. But this is the only responsibility that the head of state is willing to shoulder. He thus refused to assume “the irresponsibility” of “parliamentarians who consciously chose to bring down the budget and the government of France a few days before the Christmas holidays”.

To the calls for resignation emanating from La France insoumise, in a more subdued manner from the National Rally, and now from a majority of French people, Emmanuel Macron responded that he would exercise his mandate “fully until its end” in 2027.

Despite the “concessions” of Michel Barnier, Prime Minister who has now resigned – who resigned yesterday morning – whose “dedication” he praised, his government was censored, according to Emmanuel Macron, “because the extreme right and the far left united in an anti-republican front” to choose “disorder”. The President of the Republic also attacked, without naming it, the Socialist Party, which “just yesterday governed France”.

But while some said that, unlike this summer, he would not procrastinate and would quickly appoint a Prime Minister, the head of state will give himself “a few days” to refine his choice while several names are circulating to occupy Matignon.

Budget: a special law tabled in mid-December

“I will appoint a Prime Minister in the coming days. I will charge him with forming a government of general interest representing all the political forces in an arc of government who can participate in it or, at the very least, who undertake not to not censor it,” he promised, without further details.

This new executive will have as a “priority” the “budget”, which could not be adopted, with a “special law” which will be tabled in Parliament “before mid-December” to ensure “continuity” of the financing of the State based on the budget for the current year.

Concluding his short speech, Emmanuel Macron assured that the country must move forward and cited the reopening of Notre-Dame on Saturday and the Paris Olympics this summer as collective French successes of which we must be proud.

He “will go away by the force of events”

Unsurprisingly, the speech of Emmanuel Macron, who did not announce the name of the Prime Minister, was coldly received by the oppositions. Emmanuel Macron is “the cause of the problem” and “will go away by the force of events”, reacted the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on TF1 after the speech. The boss of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, welcomed “good news” on “About everything else, it’s simple: nothing was wrong. It’s going to end badly…”, she added, however.

“We are criticized for having voted for the motion of censure with the NFP. But who made an alliance with the extreme left last June? Who stood down for them? Who got them elected?” asked Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN deputies, adding a “little reminder to President Macron, supposed to be the guarantor of the Constitution: censorship is not anti-republican, it is provided for in the Constitution of our Fifth Republic .”

“Unbearable contempt”

“Emmanuel Macron's unbearable contempt for the French and national representation. The general interest is to hear from employees, retirees, young people, communities who have rejected his policies! I call for a social pact to meet the expectations of the country” declared the communist Fabien Roussel.

“The real irresponsibility in the budgetary debate is to have sacrificed access to care, low-income retirees, nursing homes and the public hospital. I only know one anti-Republican front, the one which gives guarantees to the extreme right, which trivializes it and which negotiates exclusively with it”, replied the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure to the head of state.

So many remarks that Emmanuel Macron should hear today, since he will receive the heads of the parliamentary groups of the Socialist Party, the presidential camp and the Les Républicains party.