François Bayrou proposed Thursday, December 19 to the parties, excluding RN and LFI, to enter his government, asking them to position themselves by Friday, and also proposed to “ resume without suspending » the 2023 pension reform, during a meeting in Matignon which aroused the ire of the left.
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During a meeting of approximately two and a half hours with the leaders of parties and parliamentary groups – excluding RN, UDR and LFI – and the presidents of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and of the Senate Gérard Larcher, the Prime Minister indicated that his government would be announced “ before Christmas ”, according to several participants.
François Bayrou, according to Matignon, made to the participants in the meeting a “public offer of participation” in the government. “ He cited three possibilities: joining the government, not being in the government but supporting it, or being in a radical opposition », Declared at the exit the communist Stéphane Peu, who is part of a “fourth option”: “ a resolute opposition “.
“ We haven’t found any reason not to censor it. », declared the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, adding: “ The Prime Minister, and those around him, really need to wake up »
“ I am still waiting for François Bayrou to take on the role of Prime Minister. But I wonder if he’ll make it », added the leader of the environmentalist senators, Guillaume Gontard.
The former president of the Liot group Bertrand Pancher, on the contrary, found the meeting “ interesting “, ” opening a dialogue with in particular real perspectives concerning the disastrous pension reform “.
Pension reform: achieving “new solutions”
According to Matignon, on this sensitive issue, the Prime Minister’s objective is to achieve “by September” “ new solutions ”, failing which “ we return to the 2023 reform » which shifted the starting age to 64 years. At the exit, Stéphane Peu spoke of “ the opening of a social conference “.
Questioned by participants, the head of government did not commit not to use article 49.3 of the Constitution for the adoption of texts.
For his part, the boss of LR deputies Laurent Wauquiez asked the other representatives “ a six-month stability commitment » for the future Bayrou government. “ Whether we participate or not, whether we are the majority or the opposition, we must commit not to overthrow it », proposed Laurent Wauquiez, according to his entourage, while LR demands to know the roadmap before deciding on its participation in the government.
Appointed on Friday, François Bayrou has since increased the number of official or more informal interviews. But his first week in Matignon was above all marked by the barrage of criticism on his presence Monday evening at the Municipal Council of Pau, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, when a cyclone had just ravaged Mayotte. He had to explain this on Tuesday for his first session at the National Assembly, without succeeding in silencing the critics. All while increasing the number of trips to the Élysée for the formation of the government.
Bayrou does not intend to “dismiss” the RN and LFI from “national life”
François Bayrou said during the meeting that he did not hear “ dismiss » the RN nor LFI « of national life “. “ I will find ways to involve them in the work we have to do “, said the Prime Minister, according to comments reported by his services.
Emmanuel Macron being in Mayotte on Thursday, before then going to French troops in Djibouti, several actors are talking about a government announcement on Sunday. The two executive houses give no date. Without a majority in the Assembly, the centrist, who has been advocating for decades a government bringing together various sensitivities, is facing strong demands from the Republicans (LR) on the right and growing attempts at censorship on the left.
The meeting format was reminiscent of that of nine days ago around Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée, where scenarios of non-censorship of oppositions were discussed, in exchange for an absence of recourse to 49.3 by the government or upon dissolution by the president.
The meeting at Matignon is “ a chimera », Launched Thursday morning Mathilde Panot. The head of the deputies of La France insoumise said “ believe » that the four components of the New Popular Front (PS, PCF, Ecologists and LFI) will vote on the motion of censure that his group will table on January 14, after François Bayrou’s general policy declaration.
The Prime Minister only receives 36% satisfaction, according to an Ifop survey for Sud Radio on Thursday, compared to 52% and 53% for his predecessors Michel Barnier and Gabriel Attal, when they started at Matignon.