The first discussions on the 2025 budget are causing tensions in the government. A minister, a heavyweight in the executive, plans to resign if he does not get what he wants.
For those who have forgotten, this illustrates once again that the Barnier government must deal with structural fragility. The Prime Minister knows that he has more opposition parliamentarians than the majority and that as soon as the RN no longer supports him, censorship will bring him down (since his deputies will then vote on a motion demonstrating that they oppose this government, as the Constitution requires). But it is now within his ministerial team that the red lines are expressed. And very explicitly. This Monday, October 14, the Minister of Justice announced on RTL that he intended to resign if Michel Barnier persisted in passing the budget presented last week.
At issue: the envelope devoted to his ministry which he very clearly considers too small. “There were additional credits obtained by my predecessor, we must continue this effort, justice must have the means,” defended Didier Migaud on the air, adding: “I set the principle of obtaining the credits necessary for the commitments to be respected in terms of staff numbers If we stick to the letter ceiling, I don’t see what I would still do in government.
Didier Migaud is not just any minister. The only personality coming from the left, he is, just after the Prime Minister, the second minister in the protocol order, proof that Matignon has made this ministry a pillar of his future action. Didier Migaud is also counting on this mark of trust and on the frank relationship he maintains with Michel Barnier so that the Justice budget is increased. “I have received assurances from the Prime Minister and I have complete confidence in him,” he said.
The Minister of Justice also gave his method for moving the lines to his advantage: “I am mobilized so that upward amendments can be proposed. The Prime Minister said, moreover, that an amendment will be tabled by the executive within the framework of parliamentary discussions to increase a certain number of budgets, including that of Justice, I hope that the commitments which have been made in terms of staffing vis-à-vis Justice are kept. -he clarified.
This intervention by the Minister of Justice comes at a time when his disagreements and differences with the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, have been widely made public. While a new immigration law has been announced for 2025, the standoff between the two major sovereign ministries has undoubtedly only just begun.