The tour continues. This Thursday, September 12, Prime Minister Michel Barnier is going to Savoie, then to Annecy (Haute-Savoie), where LR deputies and senators will meet for their parliamentary return. The night before, the latter said they were ready to join the government on condition that there were “guarantees” to lead a “real right-wing policy”. In his speech to his group, which has 47 deputies, Laurent Wauquiez declared himself concerned by “the reappointment of outgoing ministers who would not give the image of change”.
Key information to remember
⇒ LR ready to govern on condition of “guarantees”
⇒ Barnier goes to Savoy to meet his former party
⇒ We must “always take into account” the “suffrage” of the French, says Macron
LR ready to govern, Barnier visits them
The Republican parliamentarians gave their green light on Wednesday evening to participation in the future government of Michel Barnier “for a real right-wing policy”, before a meeting this Thursday with the Prime Minister, who promised a new team for “next week”.
“We are ready to participate in a government, but while being attentive to the guarantees for a real right-wing policy on the subjects that we consider fundamental,” declared Laurent Wauquiez, according to a participant, at a meeting of LR deputies on Wednesday in Aix-les-Bains (Savoie). In Annecy (Haute-Savoie), senators also supported the choice to join Michel Barnier’s executive, according to another source.
In his speech to his MPs, Laurent Wauquiez expressed his concern about “the reappointment of outgoing ministers who would not give the image of change”, demanding that Michel Barnier “not be held hostage to yesterday’s policy”. He also did not hide his opposition to the possibility of introducing “proportional representation which threatens the stability of our institutions”, and expects clarification from Michel Barnier on “the orientation on immigration, the budgetary trajectory, the danger of tax increases and the valorization of work”.
The right has not participated in a government for 12 years, victim of successive electoral defeats that have almost threatened its extinction. Coming from the same political family, Michel Barnier, former minister of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, will go to see his people on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Annecy. He will take the opportunity to first visit neighboring Savoie, his electoral department, which he presided over for 17 years.
The French people’s vote must “always be taken into account”, Macron says before the Council of State
“The people, who are sovereign today, express themselves through suffrage, which must always be taken into account because it is the primary fact in any democracy,” declared Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, during the opening ceremony of the Council of State. The head of state recalled how “our Western democracies have been deeply affected, sometimes destabilized by transitions and shocks” – climatic, energy, geopolitical – and citizens struck by the “feeling of losing control of their lives”, then pleading for a “reinforced culture of the effectiveness of public action”.
The Vice-President of the Council of State, Didier-Roland Tabuteau, for his part called for not asking judges to “replace the public authorities in defining public policy”, a temptation that is increasingly being felt by political actors in the absence of a majority in the Assembly. “The judge is there neither to please nor to displease […] His independence is the foundation of his office. […] “It is the ultimate bulwark for the protection of everyone’s rights,” he insisted.