Marc Fesneau knows Laurent Wauquiez little. The two men, with different trajectories, have never had the opportunity to fight. Too bad. This week in July, the leader of the MoDem group in the Assembly would like to understand the personality of his counterpart from the Republican Right (DR), who calls him so often. The key positions in the Palais Bourbon are being put to the vote, it is urgent to reach an agreement to block the left.
So, the Minister of Agriculture sounded out Patrick Mignola, former MoDem vice-president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. “Wauquiez? He’s tough in business, but he keeps deals, he’s the RPR,” the former MP explained to him. Well seen. A few days later, each camp kept its word. The Republican Right ensured the installation of Yaël Braun-Pivet in the Perchoir, Macronie treated its ally for a day. His group of 47 MPs obtained two of the six vice-presidencies of the Assembly, one of the three quaestors, and the position of general rapporteur of the social security budget. We nearly won a grand slam: Véronique Louwagie only failed to take the head of the Finance Committee by one vote.
“You can’t hear yourself drowning in the central block”
Too bad for the cries of outrage from the left. Never mind the irritation of Éric Ciotti, who portrays his enemy as a “little pawn of the Macronist majority”. On July 20, the group presidents negotiate the distribution of seats in the chamber. Here again, Laurent Wauquiez talks with the Horizons manager Laurent Marcangeli to find common ground. “History is in the making!”, jokes the Niçois, president of the “A Droite” group. Only too happy to sing the refrain of a compromised right with a hated power. Laurent Wauquiez doesn’t care. He hammers home his strategy of independence and his refusal of any government coalition. Exercising power in 2024 would be a renunciation of conquering it in 2027. This “deal”? A simple technical agreement, without political dimension. “We do not intend to drown in the central bloc,” he assured his troops on July 18. Please deploy the argument. To a player in the negotiations, the former minister insisted: “Let’s talk about the presidency of the Assembly and its governance. But not about the rest.”
Laurent Wauquiez won the first round. Here he is, a great prince, free to feed his flock. “He may have lost some provisional points among right-wing voters annoyed by the deal with Attal. But he needs this transitional phase to be accepted by parliamentarians,” notes a DR executive. For the moment, it’s working. “Impressed by his leadership”, “we are pleasantly surprised”, “excellent beginnings”… The DR deputies are full of compliments for their new boss. This praise is given without illusions – the man is known for his authoritarian tendencies – but with sincerity. Here, there is no conversion to Wauquiezism. The group has not transformed itself into a presidential stable. “I saw Pécresse finish at 4.7. I won’t be behind a Wauquiez at 5.2”, an elected official warned him one day. The putative candidate for 2027 still leaves people skeptical. The group president is appreciated.
Full-time HR Director
It was not a foregone conclusion. On July 7, the air was freezing in Le Puy-en-Velay. In a martial tone, Laurent Wauquiez refused any “coalition” or “compromise” with Macronism in his victory speech. Several “constructive” deputies deplored this intransigence, the temptation to found a dissident group was gaining ground. The operation, poorly prepared, did not succeed. Laurent Wauquiez did his part. The man transformed himself into a full-time “HR Director”, with text messages and individual interviews. To elected officials, he promised total freedom to vote, as long as it was not accompanied by divergent media expressions. “I don’t want to corporatize,” he said in a group meeting, anxious to show his credentials.
Time for ego management. The young MPs complained about being sidelined? He promoted them to the leadership of the group. “I want to bring the new generation up, also for the future,” he assured one of them. 2027 is never far away. Let it be said: our MPs also have a heart. When the former group president, Olivier Marleix, was targeted in a group meeting, he rushed to his rescue. “He did an excellent job in impossible circumstances.” Virginie Duby-Muller, who had been on the fringes of the group for a while, was applauded after her return home. Seduction, rather than threats. Necessity is the law. Laurent Wauquiez has little authority over these 46 “self-employed entrepreneurs” elected on their behalf. “At the Regional Council, he can crush anyone who is not in line. There, it’s more complicated,” assured a lieutenant. Not everyone has the right to this cuddle therapy. Laurent Wauquiez does not hold back Aurélien Pradié and Raphaël Schellenberger, suspected of being in a competing political adventure. “You do what you want,” he says to the latter during a brief exchange.
Strategic ambiguity
The most delicate part remains: the relationship with Macronism. A slow poison at LR. The deputies, products and prisoners of diverse electoral sociologies, are strategically torn. What do an elected official from a Macronist land and a RN slayer in a Front National constituency have in common? Anxious to embody alternation in 2027, Laurent Wauquiez refuses any coalition. But he cannot be accused of playing the politics of the worst to preserve his presidential ambitions. Thus, the deputy presented this Monday with Senator Bruno Retailleau his “emergency legislative pact”, thirteen measures that the right commits to vote if the new government seizes them.
A subtle balancing act. The man boasts of “proposals that can help move forward”, “substantive work”, but excludes any participation in the future executive. This strategic ambiguity must unite the DR group. “The legislative pact speaks to those who want to work more with the Macronists and those who want to be in the opposition”, confides MP Ian Boucard. To the former the term “pact” and the rhetoric of the agreement. To the latter the term “legislative”, excluding any government reference. The dressing is subtle, the reality more down to earth. Simple bills (PPL), as the right has always done when it is in opposition. With Laurent Wauquiez, the concession is in form. Not in substance.
This pact is a management tool. The synthesis, also, of the DNA of the right. On the menu: revaluation of work, reduction of uncontrolled immigration and restoration of public accounts. Laurent Wauquiez believes that only a “technical government”, with a weak political tone, can emerge from this ungovernable Assembly. The bills resulting from his pact will be a message addressed to the French. Do you want them to come into force? You know who to vote for in 2027.
Opinion against the Assembly?
A certain Gérald Darmanin shares this intuition. The Minister of the Interior privately judges that it will sometimes be necessary to play “public opinion against the Assembly” in the hemicycle, as it is only an imperfect representation of a France on the right. It will be necessary to bring firm proposals there – even if it means suffering defeats – and not sink into permanent compromise. For Laurent Wauquiez, the Assembly is the sounding board for a political offer in gestation. Not the place where he exercises power, from which he keeps his distance. “The Assembly is useful in terms of leadership for him,” says a close friend. “But he does not judge that everything will happen in the Assembly and that the presidential election will be decided there.”
The strategy is set. The troops still need to follow. Several MPs are demonstrating greater strategic flexibility than Laurent Wauquiez. The coalition does not excite them, as it was able to seduce LR elected officials in 2022. It would be politically fragile, against a backdrop of Macronism in its death throes. But these elected officials are wondering about the best way to ensure parliamentary stability. “We are condemned to political innovation. What direction will that take? I don’t know,” admits one MP, who is nevertheless attached to the independence line. “We must not forbid ourselves from being a recourse to avoid instability and deadlock,” adds an elected official. A third concludes: “With the pact alone, we will obtain victories and we will not have media visibility, because we will not carry them.”
Even Olivier Marleix, an incorrigible anti-Macronist, is arguing for the appointment of a right-wing Prime Minister. He believes that the weakening of the Head of State changes the situation. Exercising power would not be a rallying, but the imposition of cohabitation on the Head of State. Laurent Wauquiez will have to deal with this polyphony, but impose the tempo. The hardest part begins.
.