“It’s all pathetic. Nothing binds me to these people anymore.” The deputy Les Républicains (LR) of Savoie Emilie Bonnivard did not wait for the vote to express her anger. 19 of the 61 LR deputies adopted this Monday the motion of censure tabled by the Liot group after recourse to article 49.3 to have the pension reform adopted. Not enough to overthrow the Borne government: the text won only 278 votes out of the 287 needed. Enough to aggravate the existential crisis of the LR group, ever closer to the headless duck.
At 4.40 p.m., Olivier Marleix goes up to the tribune of the hemicycle. The boss of LR is in favor of the pension reform, the content of which he negotiated with Elisabeth Borne. “We will not vote for the motion of censure”, he says, refusing to “let himself be carried away by the far left”. The personal pronoun “we” is used several times. A way of giving a fractured group an apparent unity. Olivier Marleix then knows that elected LR will vote for the motion of censure. He counted six or seven on Saturday. But the counters panicked. “There was a ripple effect, notes the deputy of Pas-de-Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont. And when Aurore Bergé explains to us that this vote is equivalent to a vote on pensions, we take her at her word.”
Indictment of Marleix against Macron
President of the LR group: the function deserves to be included in the rank of the criteria of hardship. At the Assembly, Olivier Marleix engages in a balancing act. He recalls his support for the reform, castigates the vote on the motion, but curbs Emmanuel Macron. “Isolated and arrogant exercise of power”, “the arm of honor is not a method of government”, “lack of social dialogue”… The indictment is intended to be implacable. We must remember that we are in opposition. Saturday, Olivier Marleix preferred to laugh at his personal case. “Monday I will be the most hated guy in France, because I will appear as the one who saves the government when god knows I don’t like Macron.”
The most hated man in France? It’s exaggerated. The man least listened to by LR deputies? Teasing minds will think so. At 7 p.m., the results come in. The motion is defeated. The right has saved the executive as much as it has fractured itself. “Loser on all counts”, laments an adviser. Eric Ciotti takes refuge in a Coué method that looks like denial. “The Republicans have shown consistency and responsibility,” he said, welcoming the rejection of the motion by a “large majority of the group”. On the WhatsApp loop, MP Philippe Gosselin is alarmed by the vote of “20” rebellious MPs. “19”, immediately replies the boss of LR. We reassure ourselves as best we can.
This election sums up the trap in which the right is locked up. The management of LR tries to print a line, immediately swept away by a fringe of deputies. Their reluctance to approve the compromise forged between Eric Ciotti and Elisabeth Borne on pensions led the government to force through. The call of the president of LR not to vote on the motions of censure has remained a dead letter. Like Olivier Marleix, Eric Ciotti has little authority over this group of auto-entrepreneurs, survivors of the electoral routs of the right. “No sanction has ever been taken against the deputies who have screwed up the mess, mocks an LR leader. He keeps the mutineers on the Bounty. When you have your chin high on the Islamists and you want to be Minister of Interior is a problem.”
“Immunity Totem”
Eric Ciotti was evasive this Monday morning on BFM Nice about possible sanctions. Is an act of authority possible? The LR group has only 61 deputies. It would be enough for him to lose two elected officials to lose his ability to seize the Constitutional Council. Sanctions against MPs deviating from the official line would risk further weakening a dying group. “At 19, we have the immunity totem”, launches, bravado, a deputy. Olivier Marleix is not in favor of it. “To see his name displayed between the RN and the deputies who call for the revolution is not glorious and coherent. But it is the responsibility of each deputy to take this step.”
This episode is one more step in the disintegration of the LR group in the National Assembly. He questions the link that still unites these elected officials. Without unity and political coherence, no collective adventure possible. “We are going to have debates, assumes the deputy Aurélien Pradié, defender of the pension reform. But those who spoke of personal adventure can no longer do so.” “I don’t see what we have to do together, loose Émilie Bonnivard about the slingers. We no longer share fundamentals.” A strategic council of the party is scheduled for Tuesday morning. It promises to be lively.