It’s crazy how the dissolution really clarified everything! This second five-year term is definitely like no other. The Attal government has already fallen, the European elections have barely ended when the president decides to call legislative elections. With the result that we know… And some sixty days later, here is Michel Barnier in Matignon. For how long?
What’s our name again?
The presidential party must hold its congress soon, and renew. But actually, what is his name? En marche, La République en marche, Renaissance, Ensemble pour la République… “We don’t even know what our name is anymore,” points out former minister Aurore Bergé. “When we change our names every year, that says something about our identity problem.”
Barnier 2027
There are some shameless optimists in Michel Barnier’s entourage. Among them, a Republican Right deputy and evening visitor to Matignon who, clearly, does not follow the news and the growing tensions between the Prime Minister and the former majority.
Thus, this happy man declares: “Michel opens the way towards a joint right and center candidacy. He will be able to say ‘Look, we worked together for two years!'” Certainly, but he will not be able to add: “And that is went very well!” What does it matter for this close friend of Barnier who concludes: “I think that in Michel’s head, there is no 2027 option… Unless he succeeds.”
Edouard Philippe is “bad”
According to those close to him, the beginnings were not easy between Edouard Philippe and the new Prime Minister. Matignon’s ex judged that the members of his Horizons party were wronged in this new government organization. Which inspired this warning, formulated in private: “I am a Norman, I am evil.” And if he demonstrates it, will Barnier the Savoyard be revengeful?
Migaud saved from the waters
In 2013, Delphine Batho, Minister of Ecology, was fired from the government in half a day for having deemed her budget “bad”. Suffice to say that the exit of the Minister of Justice Didier Migaud – he estimated, Tuesday before the deputies, that the justice budget would not be “satisfactory” – has raised some eyebrows. The chancellery hastened to clarify that it is “the ceiling letter presented this summer” which “cannot be considered satisfactory” and that the minister “trusts the arbitration” of Michel Barnier for the 2025 budget of justice.
Lecornu time
His role model is Pierre Messmer, who spent more than nine years at Defense (before becoming Prime Minister…). Sébastien Lecornu also cites his Memoirs, After so many battlesin the book he publishes this week, Towards war? (Plon).
Maintained in his position despite some headwinds (Michel Barnier offered his portfolio to Bernard Cazeneuve), he staunchly defends the pre-eminence of the Head of State in military matters, but he participated in the first two government meetings around Michel Barnier, at the end of September. “When Gabriel Attal was at Matignon, Lecornu almost systematically called in sick,” says a minister from the previous government.
The failed acts of Olivier Faure
The Socialist Party has entered a zone of turbulence, please those who do so to take care of their tweets! Olivier Faure, traveling to Lomme for the political start of the PS Nord, wrote a message on X to thank all the organizers and executives of the regional section, who are loyal to him.
By all the same omitting to mention a baron from the North: Patrick Kanner, the president of the socialist senators and internal opponent, tendency Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, to the First Secretary. Kanner did not, in any case, wait for the speech of the boss of the roses to take his train, direction La Réole, for the political return of Raphaël Glucksmann.
Tragicomedy at the NFP
On Wednesday October 9, the deputies of three permanent committees (social affairs, foreign affairs, economic affairs) had to elect their president… And it was the Macronist Frédéric Valletoux who stole the position in social affairs, coveted by the socialists who presented , Jérôme Guedj. The latter could not be elected, the fault of the rebels who preferred to vote blank… Between these and the PS deputy for Essonne, since October 7, 2023 and the controversial outings of Mélenchon and his family (of whom he been the favored target), the war never ceases.
The socialists suspected that the rebels would never vote for Guedj and had, in the first place, decided to present a more “NFP compatible” candidate: Arthur Delaporte, deputy for Calvados. This was without taking into account the eternal enmities within the PS… Socialist deputies close to Delga and Mayer-Rossignol (eternal opponents of Faure) preferred Guedj at the last moment, judging Delaporte as too close to the Prime Secretary and the union with the rebels. An almost unconscious alliance between anti-LFI socialists and rebels which allowed the left to lose the presidency of the Social Affairs Commission and offer it on a silver platter to the Macronists. My God, keep me from my friends…
Budget: when is 49.3 due?
Nobody doubts it. The government will have no other choice than to use section 49.3 to pass the next budget. The macronie is rather wondering about the timetable for its activation. Should we quickly press the button, at the risk of being accused of authoritarianism? Or let the debate live, even if it means suffering defeats? The central block often leans towards the first option. “This should not take too long. Because the government will then have to explain why its final version differs from that resulting from the debates,” notes an MP. “I feel a 49.3 after revenue, because we will have to cut expenses a lot,” notes another.
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