What would politics be without its stunts, its low blows, its twisted blows, its dirty tricks…? Because, as Edouard Philippe would say, “we have to do things seriously without taking ourselves seriously”, the political service of L’Express offers to immerse you in the corridors of power thanks to a weekly meeting, every Thursday, on our website.
Union of Rights: Jordan Bardella, the staging of discord
The cover of the monthly The incorrect of March 2023 – where the leaders of the youth movements of the parties Les Républicains, Reconquête, and the National Rally appear smiling under the title “Young people cut the cord” – did not only make people happy. If it unleashed the passions within the executives of the Republicans and delighted the supporters of Eric Zemmour (who advocate the union of all the rights), it also made the elected officials cringe at the National Rally. “In the midst of the debate on pensions, to appear with ultra liberals compatible with Macron on this essential subject is a political error”, deplores an important executive of the movement, “strongly disturbed” by this staging. During the 2022 presidential campaign, Marine Le Pen repeatedly repeated this sentence: “The union of the rights is a fantasy.” For the time being, it is impossible to know if Jordan Bardella asked the president of the RN group for her agreement, before her right arm appeared on the front page of the conservative magazine.
The PS is not done with its bickering
After the preposterous congress of the PS of Marseille, a new episode between Olivier Faure and his internal critics, led by Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the number two bis of the party now, risks messing up (again) the old pink house: the election partial legislation in Ariège. The party leadership officially supports the outgoing MP Nupes – an LFI – but Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, Carole Delga (local stage), Michaël Delafosse (the other southern baron) and Anne Hidalgo are pushing the dissident socialist.
Except that the new “delegated” First Secretary Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol risks quickly finding himself stuck in this dissident adventure. Indeed, it will be up to the National Council to validate on March 11 which candidacy the PS will support. Faure has a comfortable majority and the CN should therefore decide to support the candidate Nupes. A test of truth for “NMR” since the “collective governance protocol” which allowed the peace of the brave in Marseille specifies that he, like Faure, is responsible for “carrying out in solidarity the decisions taken by the national council”. If we are to believe this piece of paper, the city councilor of Rouen will therefore have no choice but to support the Insoumise rather than the socialist dissident. But who knows, impossible is not socialist.
Even for Delga, the law is the law
This history of partial in Ariège will not end there… Indeed, the Insoumis, partners of the PS in Nupes, worry that these situations of muddles between socialists multiply and disturb the smooth running of the agreement. At LFI, we even hope that Faure and his management will sooner or later crack down on those who support the dissidents at the risk of losing a Nupes candidate. Punishing Carole Delga, popular president of the Occitane region, is not an easy task and Olivier Faure has little desire to put his finger in the gears. Yet some of his followers are pushing him to act too. “We do not forbid ourselves anything, confirms a close friend of the First Secretary. It is not up to us to say what sanctions and when. The texts are quite clear: if a socialist transgresses them, then he is sanctioned, that he is call Carole Delga, Michaël Delafosse or Jean-Michel Duchmoll. It’s legal, not political.”
Ciotti’s regrets
Not even afraid ! The letter sent to Eric Ciotti on Wednesday March 1 by a handful of deputies close to Aurélien Pradié to contest the ouster on February 18 of the latter from the party’s staff did not really shake the new boss of the Republicans. On the contrary: not only does the deputy of the first constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes remain convinced that his act of authority will pay off with his troops, but he even wonders if his initial error might not have been to integrate the recalcitrant deputy du Lot – who came third in the LR race in December with 22.3% of the vote – within the party’s organization chart.
As for the legacy of Philippe Seguin claimed by Aurélien Pradié, we hardly believe in it at the head of LR, recalling in passing that the deputy had not had a Macronist candidate to face during the last legislative elections. Basically, the right should have no qualms about pensions, believes the leader of the LRs: when the text returns to the National Assembly, he will support it, whatever happens, by “responsibility and consistency”.
Immigration law: the idea of senators LR
This is the red rag of the next immigration law. The government wants to create a residence permit for jobs in tension, intended to regularize illegal immigrants exercising a job that does not find takers. The right denounces a call for illegal immigration and promises to vote against the text. Unless a compromise is found. LR senators, who will examine the text in March, are considering the idea of limiting this residence permit in time. It would apply to foreigners currently in France, but not to future entrants. “The stock, not the flow”, sums up an elected representative of the upper house. Way to avoid any draft… And not to forget craftsmen and small bosses, who sometimes hire foreigners in an irregular situation.