Censure of Michel Barnier’s government seems increasingly close, after the adoption without a vote of the Social Security budget, via article 49.3 of the Constitution. The Prime Minister’s days at Matignon are now numbered, with Marine Le Pen sealing her fate during a day full of twists and turns. L’Express rewinds and retraces the thread of this Monday, December 2.
The pressure of the RN
The day began with the confirmation of the vote by the RN of a motion of censure. “Yes, it’s folded […] I am forced today to announce the censorship of the government”, announced the president of the party Jordan Bardella at 8 a.m. at the microphone of RTL. The National Rally will vote on a motion of censure with the left to bring down the government, “except obviously, a last minute miracle, if Michel Barnier were to review his copy by 3 p.m. But I have little hope that he be touched by grace,” he said.
After having obtained that the government abandons the increase in taxes on electricity and reduces state medical aid (AME) for undocumented immigrants, the RN demanded new concessions, in particular on the revaluation of retirement pensions or a a look back at the reduction in reimbursement for certain medications.
Time for final concessions
Almost at the same time, then in an interview on the set of CNewsMaud Bregeon, the government spokesperson, was keen to point out that the executive is “still ready” to negotiate. “Compromise requires that everyone agrees to take a step towards the other and I note that this has not always been the case today within the oppositions,” she said. In what looks like a final opening, she also recalled that reductions in reimbursement for medicines do not appear in the Social Security budget.
Just an hour later, Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced that he would bring together the group presidents of his majority in the National Assembly and the Senate for the beginning of the afternoon, at 1:45 p.m. At the end of the morning, just before this meeting, the tenant of Matignon confirms in a press release to AFP the concession announced earlier by the government spokesperson. Michel Barnier “committed to ensuring that there will be no delisting of medicines” in 2025. “Many requests have been expressed on this subject (medications, Editor’s note). Ms. Marine Le Pen, on behalf of the National Rally, reminded the Prime Minister again this morning during a telephone exchange,” the press release specifies. Enough to convince a very greedy RN?
In a long message published onthe president of the Macronist group in the Assembly Gabriel Attal, predecessor of Michel Barnier, calls on the oppositions “not to give in to the temptation of the worst and therefore not to vote for censure of the government”. “As we did in the Joint Joint Commission, we will vote for the Social Security budget. And we will also vote for the Nation’s budget,” he wrote, even though he showed his disagreement to numerous resumed his last weeks.
The time of 49.3
Around 2 p.m., even before the start of the session in the Assembly, Marine Le Pen made a final appeal to Michel Barnier and indicated that she had “filed an amendment on the renunciation of the deindexation of pensions” in the draft law. financing of Social Security, the adoption of which would lead his group not to vote for a motion of censure against Michel Barnier. “It’s up to the government to accept it or not to accept it,” continues the leader of the far-right deputies after a meeting of her troops.
At 3 p.m., the National Assembly opens its debates on the Social Security budget. In front of the deputies, in a serious tone, Michel Barnier said he had been “at the end of the dialogue” with all the political groups. The Prime Minister finally activates the government’s responsibility for the text, through article 49.3 of the Constitution, which therefore exposes him to a motion of censure. “We have now reached a moment of truth which confronts everyone with their responsibilities. It is now up to you […] to decide whether our country adopts responsible financial texts, essential and useful to our fellow citizens. Or if we enter unknown territory,” declared the Prime Minister in the chamber, calling for “the future of the nation” to be prioritized over “particular interests.”
Marine Le Pen’s final blow
Less than an hour later, the France Insoumise group announced it was filing a motion of censure in response to 49.3 initiated by the government. Prime Minister Michel Barnier “will have both dishonor and censure this Wednesday”, declared the head of the Insoumis deputies Mathilde Panot to the press. “We will vote for censorship,” said the National Rally group.
A few minutes later, Marine Le Pen plants the final nail in Michel Barnier’s coffin by indicating that the RN will table a motion of censure and that the far-right deputies will vote on all the motions, “hence (that) they) come”, including from the left. “We will vote on this motion of censure and first of all ours,” she specifies, considering that “Mr. Barnier did not wish to respond to the request of the 11 million voters of the National Rally.” More than ever on borrowed time, Michel Barnier’s government should therefore fall in the coming days.