Prime Minister Michel Barnier says he is “ready” to face a motion of censure, which the left and the far right are threatening to draw.
“I don’t know how much time I have left.” Faced with the 106th congress of mayors, which closed on Thursday November 21, Michel Barnier returned to his precarious political situation. While the left and the National Rally threaten the government with a motion of censure, the Prime Minister says he is “ready”. “I don’t know how much time I have ahead of me, it depends on a possible coalition of opposites, so to speak, in the National Assembly. I don’t know if that will happen. I’m ready for it. “
The New Popular Front has in fact threatened to draw a motion of censure to overthrow the executive in the event of use of article 49.3 to adopt the 2025 budget without a vote by Parliament. On the side of the extreme right, Marine Le Pen warned Monday, November 25 that the deputies of her party would vote for censure “if the purchasing power of the French is amputated” by the finance bill which is accompanied by increases of taxes.
“The French want stability”
“It’s quite motivating to say that we can leave tomorrow morning,” quipped Michel Barnier in front of local elected officials on the last day of the congress. “But [aussi] to say to oneself that it is not sure, that it could last two and a half years”, until the presidential election of 2027, he continued. So, what is the Prime Minister “ready” for? To leave Matignon? It is, according to him, by the solution to be provided to the French: “I know that this is not what the French want, who today want stability, serenity.” way for him to dissuade opposition from support a motion of censure? In any case he suggests that those who vote for censure would be responsible for a new political blockage.
If the Prime Minister seems to be preparing for a possible departure, he is also considering another option. According to BFMTVthe tenant of Matignon is already thinking about the constitution of a new government, a Barnier II. And he would have shared it with several people. This new executive would constitute a technical government, a sort of last rampart before a possible dismissal of President Emmanuel Macron, reports the media. La France insoumise has also proposed a motion for dismissal, deemed admissible on Wednesday by the office of the National Assembly. It could be debated in the hemicycle if it were to be included in the law committee. A step far from trivial, since during the last impeachment proposal, examined in October, the law commission overwhelmingly rejected it.