This Tuesday morning, Gabriel Attal presented to the Ensemble group an “action pact” intended to “fuel dialogue with other political parties”, in the hope of forming a coalition.
The essential
- Emmanuel Macron has postponed the appointment of a new Prime Minister and government until after the Olympic Games, i.e. not before “mid-August”. For the time being, it is therefore the resigning government of Gabriel Attal that is managing current affairs.
- Consequently, it is the Attal government that is preparing the finance bill that will be presented to Parliament at the beginning of October, with a view to the 2025 budget. A situation that displeases the left, which still hopes to form an executive after its victory in the legislative elections.
- On Tuesday, July 30, Gabriel Attal presented his “action pact” to the Ensemble group. Some forty ideas broken down into six axes intended to “fuel dialogue with other political parties,” in the hope of forming a relatively broad coalition, from the socialists to the Republican right.
- “More significant tightening of penal policy” and “new efforts to support the attractiveness of the teaching profession” could also be part of the “discussions”, even if these lines are not part of the proposals written in black and white by EPR. Enough to seduce both Les Républicains and the New Popular Front.
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15:42 – The candidates for the post of Prime Minister
Only the New Popular Front has a declared candidate for the post of Prime Minister. For the rest, names are circulating to enter Matignon with diametrically opposed profiles. One thing is certain, the Head of State wants to appoint to Matignon the head of a coalition government, with majority support in the National Assembly. Which is not the case for the New Popular Front, despite the victory in the last legislative election.
14:03 – “Go and get majorities text by text” affirms Marine Tondelier (EELV)
“In the New Popular Front, we do not have an absolute majority, but Emmanuel Macron has even less. There is no Olympic truce on the social emergency or on the climate! (…) We need a fighting government, solid, united. The “at the same time”, we saw where that was taking us in this country, that is to say, not very far. But obviously in the National Assembly, we will have to seek majorities, text by text and amendment by amendment”, declared the national secretary of EELV, Marine Tondelier in Télématin on France 2, this Tuesday morning.
????????️ “In the New Popular Front, we do not have an absolute majority, but Emmanuel Macron has it even less. There is no Olympic truce on the social emergency or on the climate!”
Marine Tondelier advocates a “fighting government”. #Les4V @marinetondelier pic.twitter.com/IsZARKIO0x
— Telematin (@telematin) July 30, 2024
12:51 – Horizons will not be part of the “action pact”
For its part, Edouard Philippe’s group Horizons will not join this action pact. The reason? The group will produce its own working document, Politico reported on Tuesday morning. A decision that the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal took “very well”, the media outlet said.
The group’s president, Laurent Marcangeli, explains that “it is not by only taking over the central bloc that we will get there”. Indeed, EPR+Horizons would allow for 166 seats in the National Assembly, far from the 289 required to obtain an absolute majority and hope to govern without risking a motion of censure. In the columns of Politico, Laurent Marcangeli also speaks of a desire for “autonomy” on the part of the Horizons deputies.
11:52 – A “light” text on taxation and the environment
WithinTogether for the Republicnot everyone is as critical of this action pact. Another MP highlights “small touches” of novelty. In particular the “PISA 2030 Strategy to raise the level” of schoolchildren or the “social conference on wages and value sharing”, she points out to Politico on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. On the other hand, she describes the entire text on taxation and the environment as “light”. Clearly, the green fund, the nuclear-renewable energy mix and the social leasing of electric vehicles do not seem to convince her.
10:54 – “Nothing new” rages this MP from the Macron camp
“These are commitments that we had already made or that were in progress… Basically, it’s about continuing/accelerating/applying/protecting. There’s nothing new,” complains an EPR MP to Politico regarding the action pact presented internally this Tuesday by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Nothing new, really? The possibility of earmarking part of one’s income tax on a mission of the State budget is still part of it, notes the media. This same MP regrets that the Macron camp is tackling this kind of issue in the middle of summer, during the Olympic Games. For comparison, Les Républicains publicly unveiled their “legislative pact” a week ago. “It’s not serious. Attal doesn’t want the coalition to succeed,” she adds.
09:56 – The Macron camp in search of allies to govern
The text that will be proposed by the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in the middle of the morning to the Ensemble pour la République (EPR) group will also include, according to information from Politico, possible discussions with the opposition that are not part of the EPR proposals. Namely: the “greater hardening of penal policy”, or “new efforts to support the attractiveness of the teaching profession”. Themes that should speak to both LR and the NFP.
09:44 – A six-pronged action pact, to speak to the left and the right
According to information from Politico, the Ensemble pour la République (EPR) group is meeting this Tuesday via videoconference for the presentation of Gabriel Attal’s “action pact”, around 10:30 a.m. A text composed of around forty ideas broken down into six axes, the objective of which is to “enable the fueling of dialogue with other political parties”, in order to form a grand coalition. Why not, from the socialist left to the republican right.
The six pillars of the project are as follows: “the defense of who we are, the quality of life of the French, the environment, security, our public services and our military and economic sovereignty”. Three “essential principles” have also been established, Politico, which obtained this famous action pact, told us this Tuesday morning. “Budgetary responsibility”, “France’s inclusion in the European project”, and “the essential fight against climate change”. In other words, something to try to satisfy both the right and the left.
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How soon will the new government be appointed?
Emmanuel Macron called for a “political truce” for the duration of the Olympic Games, while Gabriel Attal’s government resigned on July 16. The President of the Republic estimated that no new government would be appointed before “mid-August”, preferring “stability” for the duration of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Given the composition of the National Assembly, the President of the Republic has set himself the task of finding a Prime Minister capable of gathering the support of at least 289 deputies, in order to ensure stability. The same applies to the ministers that the latter will then have to propose. Otherwise, the new government as a whole would be exposed to a motion of censure which, if voted for by more than half of the elected representatives, would lead to the overthrow of the ministerial team. It would therefore be necessary to start all over again.
The problem is that Emmanuel Macron will have to accommodate all sensitivities, from the left of course, from the center naturally, but also from the right. If the NFP came out on top, the head of state has already ruled out governing with the LFI deputies. So out goes these sixty elected officials, who could be compensated by the sixty LR who should once again join the Palais Bourbon. Finding personalities who suit the ecologists, socialists, communists, macronists and republicans will not be easy. Not to mention the programmatic points on which everyone will have to agree. The negotiations are still expected to be long and complex. Suffice to say that Gabriel Attal should make extra…
Long and complex negotiations also took place on the left, before the NFP reached an agreement, on Tuesday July 23, just one hour before Emmanuel Macron’s interview on France 2. After several weeks of procrastination, the left-wing parties of the NFP agreed on the name of the senior civil servant, spokesperson for Our Public Services, Lucie Castets, for Matignon.