A first motion of censure before a possible long series? Prime Minister Michel Barnier will face this Tuesday, October 8, in the afternoon, a motion of censure tabled by the left to protest against the “negation of the result” of the last legislative elections. Signed by the 192 deputies of the New Popular Front, it will be defended by the socialist Olivier Faure.
The first secretary of the Socialist Party will take the podium, a priori around 4:30 p.m., to defend the text co-signed by almost the entire left alliance. “This will be the moment of truth. We will see who opposes the government and who does not,” Olivier Faure told AFP. The PS deputy intends to point out in his speech a “government turning its back on the Popular Front but especially on the Republican Front, and on the vote of the voters”.
The RN in the role of kingmaker
Michel Barnier will respond to him, then will come a long series of interventions from political groups, before a vote whose result should only be known at the end of the day. According to the National Assembly’s count, this will be the 35th motion of censure of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term. Michel Barnier should survive without too much difficulty, because this motion has very little chance of being adopted. Indeed, even if the 192 signatory deputies voted for, with certain independents from the Liot group, the bar of 289 votes seems unattainable without those of the 141 deputies of the National Rally-Eric Ciotti alliance. Because the executives of the RN, Marine Le Pen in the lead, do not intend to overthrow the government at this stage, being satisfied with having the ax in their hand to influence the choices of the executive.
Last Tuesday, during Michel Barnier’s general policy declaration (DPG), the president of the RN group in the National Assembly gave an indication of the position of her party: “We will judge you on your actions, never, contrary to others, starting from childish postures.” “We chose not to fall into chaos, not to immediately censor Michel Barnier to give him the opportunity to develop a project […] If it doesn’t suit us, we will censor it,” the group’s deputy president, Sébastien Chenu, argued on Monday on RMC.
The vote of members or ex-members of the presidential camp, offended by the very right-wing composition of the government, will be scrutinized: will they go so far as to censor it? “As it stands, I will not vote for the motion of censure because the Prime Minister has not to date taken any measures that could offend my convictions,” Marie-Pierre Rixain, a particularly committed Macronist MP, explained to AFP. on issues of gender equality. Stella Dupont, who left the Macronist group amid disagreement with the composition of the government, and in particular the arrival of Bruno Retailleau as Minister of the Interior, will not censor at this stage either.
On September 30, the deputy Sacha Houlié, another former figure of the left wing of Renaissance, had threatened on the Interior”. “The question of censorship will not arise (this Tuesday) but it will arise quite quickly on the budget,” Olivier Falorni, classified on the left wing of the MoDem group, told AFP.
“I am in the hands of Parliament”
According to the left, the main interest of this motion of censure is to clarify the political positioning of the groups vis-à-vis the government. “It’s about drawing the majority politically,” explained with of the World Cyrielle Chatelain. The president of the ecological and social group draws a line: “Those who vote for censorship want Emmanuel Macron’s policies to stop”, in other words not the others, and especially not the RN.
Michel Barnier is well aware of walking a tightrope: “I know that I am in the hands of Parliament”, underlined the Prime Minister In La Tribune Sunday. “If there is a conjunction of the left and the National Rally [sur une motion de censure]I will leave my post”, added the head of government. Michel Barnier also comes this Tuesday morning before the deputies of the Ensemble pour la République (EPR, ex-Renaissance) group, after blowing hot and cold on the results of his predecessor at Matignon Gabriel Attal, who became president of the group.