She was not the candidate of the heart. But reason prevailed. Her name symbolizes a bygone era, but she resisted the wave of disengagement triggered during the legislative elections. Yaël-Braun Pivet was re-elected this Thursday, July 18, President of the National Assembly against the communist André Chassaigne, at the end of the third round of voting. With 220 votes against 207, the deputy of Yvelines is re-enlisting at the last minute for a new term. Her re-election is a relief for the Elysée. Here Emmanuel Macron is free to discuss the illegitimacy of the left in demanding Matignon. Free, also, to erect this success as the founding act of a very hypothetical coalition.
Keep me from my friends, I’ll take care of my enemies. On July 16, did Yaël Braun Pivet think about this maxim? Facing her were the deputies of Ensemble pour la République (EPR), survivors of the dissolution of the National Assembly. “I’m happy to have the group’s trust,” she told her peers. The elected official was alone on the track, no colleague dared to confront her during an internal primary. But she knew that there was no enthusiasm in the room. “Zero enthusiasm,” “nothing has changed,” “she is clumsy in her insistence”… So many executives of the former majority were spreading harsh criticism against YBP, suspected of clinging to her position. She didn’t care. She began her campaign on the evening of the second round, with text messages and calls to the contenders. Her race was meticulous. Hey, which deputies elected under the LR banner are among the non-registered? She inquires, no vote should be missing.
Even that of Gabriel Attal. The actors in the play are convinced: since the flow of the week, the resigning Prime Minister seems to be doing everything to ensure that Yaël Braun-Pivet does not reach the perch. For fear of seeing a rival for 2027 settle in Lassay? Monday at the Elysée, he questions the need to organize a primary with the partners of the former majority. “It was for him and a few others a way to get rid of her, notes a leader. I am tired of their stupidity, they are relentless!” In fact, this maneuver quickly follows another. The Prime Minister suggests to Marc Fesneau, former Minister in charge of Relations with Parliament, now in charge of Agriculture, to prepare to be a candidate in the second or third round. The centrist balks, he does not want to be “the arbiter of their turpitudes”.
The tango between the right and the former majority
A wounded beast, Yaël Braun-Pivet? Ambitious people are lurking. MP Naïma Moutchou takes the plunge, boasting about her ability to speak to the entire chamber. Republican Right (LDR) MP Annie Genevard briefly entertains the idea of taking the perch. She is respected by her peers, her competence is recognized. Finally, she has the advantage of not being a Macronist. On Tuesday, she meets her counterpart Sacha Houlié in the corridors of France Inter. “EPR MPs will vote for you in the first round,” the former president of the Law Commission, now non-registered, tells her. Other marchers, not very keen on Yaël Braun-Pivet’s candidacy, chat with her.
The Genevard hypothesis is circulating, but is slowly fading away. The Republican Right (LDR) is too weak to claim such a position. Laurent Wauquiez has no doubt about it. The leader of the right has never felt that the former majority was ready to give up the perch as a sign of openness. The man does not deplore this intransigence. Rather, he is delighted by it. “If it’s Braun-Pivet, it’s Braun-Pivet,” he confides to a minister. He has been known to be more combative. “Wauquiez didn’t want Genevard, but he wants an agreement with us,” notes a participant in the secret meetings. He then negotiates the withdrawal of his camp in the second round in exchange for key positions in the new Assembly. Here are the right and the former majority embarked on a new tango. These two are definitely inseparable. The first is too weak to take the perch, the second needs its votes. “If we don’t agree, you don’t have the presidency,” Laurent Wauquiez said at the beginning of the week to a player in the deal. “And you have nothing!”, he was told. Clinic.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s former minister engages in negotiations with Gabriel Attal, Laurent Marcangeli and Marc Fesneau. The head of government is his main interlocutor. On Wednesday, July 18, he gathers his troops in the Assembly. Then leaves the room for a few minutes, telephone to his ear. You don’t leave a Prime Minister on answering machine, even if he resigns. In front of his own people, he smiles at the agreement in the making. “They can’t refuse us anything,” he explains in essence. Is he really wrong? The Macronist basket is dense: a quaestor position, two vice-presidencies, the head of the finance committee and two secretarial positions are promised to LDR. But let it be said: this exchange of good deeds is not the founding act of a coalition with Macronie, a hypothesis rejected by Laurent Wauquiez “We don’t intend to drown in the central bloc,” he assures his troops. To a member of the former majority, the putative candidate for 2027 gives the same speech. “Let’s talk about the presidency and the governance of the Assembly. Not about the rest.”
The Elysée Palace is making this election a founding act of a coalition
Macronism, even if faltering, remains radioactive. This Thursday, the National Assembly offers it a reprieve. In the first two rounds of voting, with an absolute majority, Yaël Braun-Pivet almost completely filled her own party. There was little loss among Macronist elected officials or the MoDem, which did not present a candidate. Pragmatism prevails over annoyance. The need for unity and the desire to defeat the left stifle many critics. “People grumble, but she is our candidate and the best in this context,” defends the deputy Ensemble pour la République (EPR) Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade. The former president of the Renaissance group Sylvain Maillard confirms: “we must show that the central bloc has the largest relative majority.”
So, let’s go for Yaël Braun-Pivet. The candidate took advantage of the withdrawals of Naïma Moutchou and Philippe Juvin in the first two rounds. In the third round, with a relative majority, she found herself in a duel with the communist André Chassaigne. The RN remained in its swimming lane, on the fringes of the vote. With a 13-vote lead, the ball was close. But Yaël Braun-Pivet was standing. Her fuel: the fear of the left. Many deputies retained the membership of the New Popular Front from the communist Chassaigne, a respected elected official. A scarecrow. “The label weighs,” notes a resigning minister. “Her personality will not be enough to overcome both the NFP and communism,” adds an EPR executive.
PS leader Olivier Faure privately considered that a defeat at the Perchoir would further complicate the left’s aspiration to take Matignon. This request, parasitized by the war between the Socialists and the Insoumis, has lead in the wing. The Elysée erects this election as a founding act of a coalition. Emmanuel Macron has every opportunity to depict the agreement reached between the right and the central bloc as a premise of a broader cooperation. The Assembly first, the government after? We are far from it. Laurent Wauquiez takes meticulous care to decorrelate the two subjects, he who is content to propose a modest legislative pact to the Macronists. The central bloc has won a battle. The problem of the ungovernability of the country remains.
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