Chosen to succeed Michel Barnier, François Bayrou began without wasting time this Saturday, December 14, his consultations with a view to forming a government. The challenge is significant, since the new head of the executive, aged 73, must deal with an Assembly which can bring him down if the voices of the left unite with those of the National Rally, as during the motion which ended the lease of its predecessor. For the moment, the left is divided on the attitude to adopt towards the mayor of Pau. La France insoumise has already indicated that it will file a motion of censure as soon as possible.
Information to remember:
⇒ François Bayrou consults Matignon with a view to composing his government
⇒ No “a priori” censorship, but “a priori censorship”, warns Marine Tondelier
⇒ The right conditions its participation in the future government
François Bayrou begins his consultations in Matignon
The new Prime Minister began his consultations this Saturday with a view to forming a government, receiving at Matignon the presidents of the two parliamentary chambers as well as the first president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici. The latter arrived in Matignon around 10:45 a.m., noted AFP. The meeting with the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet was set for 11:30 a.m. and that with her Senate counterpart Gérard Larcher at 6:00 p.m. The day after the Moody’s agency downgraded France’s sovereign rating, considering that the country’s “political fragmentation” is not conducive to the rapid recovery of public finances, François Bayrou must also receive the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau.
The new head of the executive also received Bruno Retailleau on Friday evening at Matignon, who asked him for “guarantees”, particularly on immigration, to participate in the government. This meeting “made it possible to begin an essential discussion on the course to take to get France out of the institutional impasse and to take up the considerable challenges that arise”, explained to AFP the entourage of the Minister of the Interior resigned, adding that discussions between the two men would continue “in the coming days”.
Censorship on everyone’s mind
Will François Bayrou suffer the same fate as Michel Barnier, overthrown by the National Assembly after three months? “I would not say that we are going to censor a priori, but I am starting to have preconceptions of censorship,” Marine Tondelier declared this Saturday morning, the day after the appointment of the president of MoDem to Matignon. The boss of the Greens stressed on France Inter that the President of the Republic had appointed one of his “faithful people”, stubbornly “not wanting to recognize his defeat” during the legislative elections.
She recalled the wish of environmentalists that the government renounces using article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, and asked for commitments “on the merits”. We need “more social justice, more tax justice”, “stop slashing community resources”, “prepare for the future” in particular by drafting a “climate law”, and “calm down” the country, he said. -she said. By this yardstick, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, is not a “calming person”, she affirmed while the question of his retention in Beauvau arises. “Today, I have difficulty seeing how [François Bayrou] convinces us not to censor him, especially if he doesn’t call us, and if his first political gesture is to receive Bruno Retailleau, it’s still a bad start. But it’s up to him: he has his own censorship in his hands,” she concluded.
The spokesperson for the PS, Chloé Ridel, also considered the retention of Bruno Retailleau at the Interior problematic. “If he returns him to the government, he risks ending up like Michel Barnier”, overthrown three months after his appointment, she judged on X.
LFI, for its part, has already indicated that it will file a motion of censure as soon as possible, its coordinator Manuel Bompard describing the appointment of François Bayrou as “a new arm of honor for democracy”.
Republicans condition their participation in government
On the right, the Republicans have conditioned their participation in the government on the “project” that the new Prime Minister will present to them. “It is then that we can decide on possible participation,” said the group’s boss Laurent Wauquiez on Friday, whose positions were “consensus among the deputies who spoke” during a video meeting.
“We will not deny ourselves,” warned LR MEP François-Xavier Bellamy on France Inter this Saturday morning, citing immigration, security, agriculture, taxation and even the country’s debt as priorities for his party. .