A “new government”, not a “reshuffle”: for his first meeting with Macronist deputies, Michel Barnier outlined on Tuesday the contours of the “demanding coexistence” vaunted at the Élysée with this right-wing Prime Minister who promised to respect “all the sensitivities” of the presidential party. He also held consultations on Tuesday to form his government at Matignon, receiving Marc Fesneau (MoDem), Stéphane Séjourné (Renaissance) and Hervé Marseille (UDI).
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⇒ Michel Barnier meets with the deputies of the Horizons group
⇒ For Eric Ciotti, any increase in taxes is “an unbearable line”
⇒ Gabriel Attal: “do everything” so that the Barnier government “works”
He meets with the deputies of the Horizons group
He will go to Reims on Wednesday to meet the 33 deputies of the Horizons group, the party of Édouard Philippe, then to Seine-et-Marne with the 36 of the MoDem. He could then go to the parliamentary days of his political family at the end of the week in Aix-les-Bains.
Barnier to Macronist MPs: “This is a new government, not a reshuffle”
“This is a new government, not a reshuffle,” Michel Barnier explained to the deputies of the Macronist group Ensemble pour la République who met the new Prime Minister on Tuesday evening in Rosny-sur-Seine during their parliamentary days. Michel Barnier promised, according to participants in the meeting, to respect “all sensitivities” within the Renaissance group renamed EPR, placed in an inextricable and unprecedented situation: defeated in the legislative elections, he must support the Prime Minister chosen by Emmanuel Macron, from the right and the Republicans (LR).
“I need you and the President of the Republic needs you,” stressed Michel Barnier, according to the same sources. But “this is a new government and not a reshuffle,” explained the former European Commissioner, suggesting a vast renewal of ministers.
For Ciotti, RN ally, any increase in taxes is “an unbearable line”
Eric Ciotti, the contested president of the Les Républicains party after its alliance with the National Rally, declared on Tuesday that any “tax increase” was for him “an unbearable line”, without going so far as to promise censure of the Barnier government if it were to cross it.
“For me, increasing taxes is very clearly an unbearable line and it is an economic error,” declared on BFMTV the man who announced that he wanted to transform LR, “an outdated brand”, into the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR). His small parliamentary group allied to the RN took this name. Could he censure Michel Barnier’s government in the event of tax increases? “The question will arise. I will not vote for a budget where there will be an increase in compulsory deductions,” he temporized.
Attal: “Do everything to make it work”
At Renaissance, “our first duty” is “to do everything to make it work,” Gabriel Attal declared in the morning. While reaffirming “a right to demand” because, he said, “no majority can be written without us. No vote can be won without us.” During the meeting, the resigning Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin suggested that potential ministers from the presidential camp could leave the government en bloc if “red lines” were crossed. Former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne spoke of “participation without support,” according to the resigning Minister Olivia Grégoire.
A way, no doubt, to reassure the most reluctant Macronist MPs to support a government led by LR and placed “under surveillance” by the National Rally. “If you put (Bruno) Retailleau or (Laurent) Wauquiez in government, I don’t support them. They defended values that are not mine. This is not going beyond their limits, it is compromising with them,” warns a Renaissance executive. In front of his troops, Gabriel Attal insisted, according to his entourage, on the “unity” of the group on the European question, on the place of the economy in society, the refusal to increase taxes or even secularism.
But disagreements are emerging. As MP Charles Rodwell has mentioned in The Figaro a “cultural insecurity” of the French, particularly linked to immigration, his colleague Ludovic Mendes sees it as “a far-right theory”.
Gérard Larcher opened the door to LR participation
On Monday, Senate President Gérard Larcher opened the door to LR participation in the Barnier government. A new development for the right-wing party, initially based on a refusal of any coalition or participation advocated by Laurent Wauquiez.