“The face of the world will not be changed.” This Renaissance deputy smiles at the mention of the strategic meeting organized this Wednesday, June 21 at the headquarters of the presidential movement. About thirty parliamentary executives were gathered to discuss the conduct to be followed during the rest of the legislature. With a nagging question: should we forge an alliance with the Republicans (LR) to obtain an absolute majority at the Palais Bourbon? LR, this “rival partner” capable of saving Elisabeth Borne at each motion of censure as well as putting her head under water during retreats.
Two hours of discussion provided a clear answer to this question. Such an agreement has no chance of seeing the light of day. The right-wing staff rejects the hypothesis and wants to believe that an independence line will preserve its chances for 2027. A majority of LR deputies, elected in constituencies hostile to Emmanuel Macron, do not want it. Also, what’s LR’s phone number? The psychodrama of the pensions revealed a group closer to the “headless chicken” – word of a Renaissance deputy – than to the homogeneous bloc. “How to agree with a party whose members do not agree with each other?, loose this Wednesday in front of his people the Renaissance deputy Ludovic Mendes. At home, there is the historic LR line, the macronist LR line and the LRN line.”
Impossible agreement with LR
The left wing of the majority is finally not excited about the idea of applauding Éric Ciotti or Bruno Retailleau during questions to the government. A ministerial adviser told an LR deputy that such an agreement would deprive the majority of 20 precious votes. “We would lose our DNA, which is that of going beyond and central positioning”, warns a deputy. Necessity is law. In the absence of an agreement, we must pursue the strategy of “text by text” by speaking to the right and the moderate left. Climb, like Sisyphus, the same mountain with each bill, before starting again. “We must bring to life a spirit of coalition and keep an outstretched hand”, explains in substance to his troops the secretary general of Renaissance Stéphane Séjourné.
The majority thus seeks to guard against the mischief of immobility. The possible blocking of the Assembly will not be of his doing! The Renaissance group has done its part of the way, with the oppositions to do the same. “It is the responsibility of the parties of government to participate in the success of the country”, assures internally the deputy Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade. At the end of the meeting, the spokesman of Renaissance Loïc Signor quotes, in addition to the right, “the constructive forces on the left of the hemicycle, including in the Nupes among the members of the Socialist Party and the Social Democrats” as potential partners.
“We can go from LR to Roussel”
Avoid immobility. Reach out to republican formations of goodwill. This consensual objective masks strategic divergences. Macronism is a constantly changing body. Born in the center left on the ruins of Hollandism, in 2017 he embodied the overcoming of divisions. For many, it has become a centre-right offer, far removed from its original promise. This moult outlines distinct strategies in this relative majority. The macronists from the left hammer a speech of “overcoming”, when the representatives of the right wing have their eyes riveted on LR.
This round table has summed up this fault line. Violette Spillebout, ex-socialist: “We have to talk to the left Télérama again.” Ludovic Mendes, also passed through the ranks of the PS: “We can go from LR to Roussel.” Executives from LR, on the other hand, look mainly to the right. Their thesis: the electoral sociology of the Renaissance has veered to the right, it is time to draw the political consequences. The deputy of Essonne Robin Reda thus warned the party of “overcoming” not to become that of the “overwhelmed”. “We must send signals consolidating the alignment of convictions between the electorate of LR and the majority”, he judges. The elected hopes that a de facto coalition will form with the right in the name of the policy carried out. MP Eric Woerth worried about the “open field” left to LR on immigration after the procrastination of the executive. “This must not happen again,” he slipped.
A united group, but…
This meeting is a summary of the state of the Renaissance group under this mandate: a group united by the state of relative majority, forced by pragmatism to turn to LR, but divided on its deep identity: a central block going beyond the divisions or a group completing a right-handed moult.
By small touches, this question agitates the group. An LR text on state medical aid (AME) has internally awakened a left-right divide. Grouped in a WhatsApp loop with the evocative name, “Solféri-no”, around twenty Renaissance deputies, for some defectors from LR, are organizing to tilt the group’s line on their side. This structuring annoys some macronists from the historic channel, not far from feeling dispossessed: “To hear them, Macron’s problem is the macronists! Plague a left wing executive. Response from a member of the right wing, with a burst of laughter. “But he’s absolutely right! Leave it to the professionals!”