“No matter who the monarch replaces her with, we demand a vote of confidence in Parliament! (…) Without this vote of confidence, we will table a motion of censure.” After the resignation of Élisabeth Borne, the Insoumis, through a tweet from their boss in the Hemicycle Mathilde Panot, only waited a few minutes to threaten Gabriel Attal.
In one evening, the element of language made its nest among the Mélenchonists and the idea imposed itself on the rest of the left. “The republican tradition is that a Prime Minister who has just been appointed comes to seek the anointing of Parliament”, affirmed the next day Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the PS, on France inter, while the communist Fabien Roussel , on TF1, argues that “the least we can do” would be “for the new Prime Minister to give his direction to the National Assembly in his general policy speech (…) and for there to be a vote behind it”. And The Ecologists added by way of a press release on Tuesday afternoon: “The only way to escape the president’s role as foil is to reconnect with Parliament’s vote of confidence (…)”.
“It’s a tradition, not an obligation”
Showcase a Prime Minister fearful of being in a relative majority in Parliament; play on constitutional subtleties to paint the portrait of a – morally – illegitimate head of government… Then symbolize, through this announcement, their opposition to “the presidential monarchy”. Nothing new under the sun. But the Constitution of the Fifth Republic does not indicate textually that the “vote of confidence” constitutes an obligatory step for the Prime Minister, even if article 49 provides that the government has the faculty, but not the obligation, to engage its responsibility before the National Assembly following a declaration of general policy. A negative vote would then result in the resignation of the government.
The left’s injunction would respond “neither to the letter nor to the spirit of the Constitution”, according to Jean Garrigues, historian and specialist in political history. Whatever. “We are real democrats, real republicans: as long as he has not asked for my confidence, I do not have confidence”, tackles the Insoumis Antoine Léaument. Gabriel Attal will at least have had the merit of bringing the former partners of Nupes to agreement. With one nuance: not all of them have yet decided their position on a possible motion of censure, even if they assure that they “probably” follow the Mélenchonists.
“It’s a tradition, not an obligation,” continues the historian. Because if the vast majority of Gabriel Attal’s contemporaries took part in the exercise, some heads of government have, in the past, refused to accompany their general policy declaration with a vote of confidence. Quite quickly, under the Fifth, two of De Gaulle’s three Prime Ministers, Georges Pompidou (1966 and 1967) and Maurice Couve de Murville (1968), evaded it. “They had a strong majority, but for them it was a question of emphasizing the pre-eminence of the executive power over the legislative,” explains Jean Garrigues. Raymond Barre, in 1976, also deviated from it, the latter having preferred to submit to it on the amending finance bill. Under Mitterrand, this was the case for three of his seven Prime Ministers (Michel Rocard in 1988, Edith Cresson in 1991, and Pierre Bérégovoy the following year), due to lack of an absolute majority.
The fear of abstention from the RN
Reason why Elisabeth Borne, on July 6, 2022, refused to venture into such an election: a first since the arrival of Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée. His predecessors, with their absolute majority, had submitted to it with the assurance of emerging victorious. Édouard Philippe, twice in July 2017 and June 2019, receiving 370 and 363 votes in favor respectively; and Jean Castex, obtaining 345 votes the following year. How far away it seems, this long quiet river… Relative majority obliges, Elisabeth Borne had simply taken out the calculator: and the count was not there. Behind the scenes, the former prefect had also feared that her inauguration would be facilitated by the abstention of the National Rally.
“I don’t think the French want us to censor a priori a government which has not announced anything,” explained RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy on the radio this Wednesday morning. Because the group has not yet decided anything, even having fun indicating that “everything remains open for the moment”, a month after joining its voices with those of the Macronists in the vote on the immigration law. Risk receiving, once again, the anointing of the extreme right, and all the shameful charge that this decision would bring? “We do not take the opinion of the RN into account, assures a Renaissance executive, who pleads for a vote of confidence. Gabriel Attal, I think, can pass the course: he is appreciated by part of the left and the right; the LR have no interest in the political crisis.” Other Macronist deputies are more cautious. “There is no need for it, he can be satisfied with a general policy speech,” says one of them.
Hide behind the Constitution or combine your legitimacy with a nice – but risky – political move? The person concerned has not yet decided. During his transfer of power, Gabriel Attal assured the opposition “to always listen to them, to always respect them”. These same oppositions are free to interpret the meaning of this sentence.
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