He said he “believes” that there is an alternative to the legal age of 64, a major irritant of the latest reform adopted in 2023, but “does not believe” that the latter can ultimately be purely and simply repealed.
While he is trying to secure a majority despite an almost irreconcilable National Assembly, François Bayrou affirmed “that the path exists”. “If we don’t succeed in this test, then this is the last station before the cliff,” he added.
Appointed on Friday and cornered on all sides after a start strewn with pitfalls and controversies, the Prime Minister spoke at the end of a day of consultations in Matignon, where he received party and parliamentary group leaders (excluding RN, UDR and LFI) and the presidents of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and the Senate Gérard Larcher.
To the officials gathered around the table, he promised a government appointment “before Christmas”, even hoping for it “during the weekend”. And asked his interlocutors for a response on their participation in the government by Friday “at midday”, to clarify the positions of everyone and in particular of the Republicans, who have still not made their choice official.
No 49.3 except “absolute blocking”
Attempting to reach out to the left, the tenant of Matignon promised not to use the weapon of 49.3, “unless there is an absolute blockage on the budget” for 2025, currently suspended and that it “hopes” to achieve success “by mid-February”, a very ambitious deadline given parliamentary imperatives.
But at the end of the meeting in Matignon, the oppositions did not seem convinced, far from it.
“We haven’t found any reason not to censor it.” “The Prime Minister, and those around him, really need to wake up,” declared PS first secretary Olivier Faure.
“I am still waiting for François Bayrou to take on the role of Prime Minister. But I wonder if he will succeed,” added the leader of the environmentalist senators, Guillaume Gontard, the communists choosing for their part a position “of ‘resolute opposition’…
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Without committing to the participation of his own, the boss of LR deputies Laurent Wauquiez asked the other representatives for “a six-month stability commitment” for the future Bayrou government.
“Whether we participate or not, whether we are the majority or the opposition, we must commit not to overthrow it,” proposed Mr. Wauquiez, according to his entourage, while LR demands to know the road map before decide on his participation in government.
Another pledge to the LR from the Prime Minister, he publicly said he wanted Bruno Retailleau to remain in his post at the Interior. “I think that Mr. Retailleau has shown in recent weeks and months that he has found decisions and directions that respond to part of what public opinion is asking for,” he said.
But his first week in Matignon, marked by the barrage of criticism on his presence Monday evening at the Pau municipal council, remains very difficult to forget, when a cyclone had just ravaged Mayotte.
On this subject and while Emmanuel Macron was in Mayotte and did not wish to give a timetable for the reconstruction, François Bayrou launched an objective: to rebuild in a “short” time frame, “perhaps” in “two years “.
Motion of censure?
Will the Prime Minister pass the risk of censorship, when 65% of French people judge that his debut at Matignon is “unsatisfactory”, according to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey for Le Figaro?
The rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is already promising it, “so as not to waste our time on dead-end debates”, and calls on other left-wing parties to “come home”.
The filing of a rebellious motion of censure seems certain from January 14, after François Bayrou’s general policy declaration.
François Bayrou said during the meeting that he did not intend to “dismiss” the RN or LFI “from national life”. “I will find ways to involve them in the work we have to do,” said the Prime Minister, according to comments reported by his team.
