There is only a short day left before the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and the parties represented in Parliament. From hour to hour, the course of the meeting of Wednesday, August 30 becomes clearer on the side of the Elysée, master of the game, while the opposition parties affirm their ambitions by interposed press releases.
According to government spokesman Olivier Véran, this “afternoon of work that the President of the Republic wishes to be productive” must be organized around “several axes”. “First the international axis […] but also on how to form a nation, on the return of authority, on immigration issues”, he detailed. In a letter addressed to the parties, the Head of State stressed that the objective was to draw up legislative texts “together” and pave the way, “if necessary”, for referendums. Some opposition parties have already expressed their determination to submit referendum proposals to the President of the Republic, while that others have expressed their desire to boycott the initiative.
A referendum on pensions requested by Nupes
On the left, the pension reform still mobilizes. The four parties that make up the Nupes (LFI, EELV, PS, PCF) thus agree to ask Emmanuel Macron for a referendum on it, yet adopted last March. “We will bring to the President of the Republic the fact that there is a referendum that the French have been waiting for several months, it is a referendum on the project of postponing the retirement age to 64 years old”, announced on France 2 the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône Manuel Bompard this Tuesday. “If the President of the Republic is considering one or more referendums, the priority is to get the French to vote on the question of postponing the retirement age to 64, that’s what the French have asked for. overwhelming majority for months and months, so this is the only referendum I could support,” he insisted.
In addition, without further details, Nupes indicated that it wanted to inform the President of proposals concerning the difficulties of recruitment in National Education, the increase in the price of school supplies, the cost of student life, the price of electricity, fuel and food inflation.
A referendum on immigration demanded by the right and the far right
To the right of the chessboard, Les Républicains and the National Rally have announced their desire to address the issue of immigration. This Sunday, in his stronghold of the Alpes-Maritimes, Eric Ciotti unveiled to his supporters the proposals he will present to Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. He will first of all ask for a referendum on the proposed constitutional law on immigration tabled by his party in the spring. “We will not play the first violins of the symphony of immobility!” warned Eric Ciotti. The head of the Republicans has announced that he will also ask for the strengthening of security and justice, the abolition of all “rights for illegal immigrants”, the compulsory uniform at school and college, the abolition of allowances for “the parents having failed in their duties”.
Same ambitions on the side of the extreme right which intends to demand a referendum on immigration. “The urgency of the situation calls for a consultation of the French people […] on our immigration policy, containing all the measures to regain control of it”, wrote Jordan Bardella in anticipation in a letter to the President of the Republic, of which Agence France Presse obtained a copy. The president of the RN will also challenge the head of the State on the purchasing power of the French by asking for a “moratorium on any increase in taxes and duties” until the end of the five-year term in 2027. He also said he wanted to emphasize the “reduction of energy bills and fuel prices, the tax exemption of salary increases of up to 10%, and the abolition of the CVAE (contribution on the added value of companies, editor’s note) in order to encourage reindustrialisation”. Referring to the “crisis of school”, Jordan Bardella calls for an “overhaul of school curricula” with particular emphasis on “the history of the Nation” and for “better attractiveness of the vocation of teacher by an additional salary increase”.
The boycott of part of the left
In a particularly severe letter addressed to the Head of State, the four main Nupes parties (LFI, EELV, PS, PCF) affirm that “in view of the content of the policy” of Emmanuel Macron and ” terms of (his) invitation”, they have “no illusions” about his objectives, saying they are “accustomed” to his “communication operations without a future and without effects”.
“We do not want to participate again in a media staging. This is the reason why we will not participate in the dinner that you are organizing in the evening”, they argue. Party leaders are invited to an afternoon of discussions and a dinner, a “loyal outstretched hand”, according to Emmanuel Macron, a few weeks after violent urban riots which brought issues of order, integration back to the fore. , education and authority. According to the Elysée, the working dinner must be devoted to the third part of the agenda, that devoted to the “cohesion of the Nation”. Emmanuel Macron also wishes to discuss the consequences for France of the international situation and institutional reforms.
The Liot group disappointed not to be invited
After declaring that it did not want to invite LFI and the RN, considered “outside the republican framework”, the Elysée changed its mind. Nevertheless, other groups complain of not having been invited on the initiative of Emmanuel Macron, including the Liot group, author of the motion of censure which almost overthrew the government in the National Assembly during the pension reform (nearly nine votes). “The President of the Republic has chosen not to invite the Liot group, which is nevertheless composed of 21 deputies from the RPS movements [Régions et Peuples solidaires]UDI, Nouveau Center and Utiles at its ‘afternoon of joint work’ scheduled for August 30”, denounces the group in a press release sent to Agence France Presse on Tuesday. However, Emmanuel Macron had cited Liot as a possible partner for an “alliance” on certain texts during a television interview in the fall.
“The Liot group has been, since its constitution, a ‘group of opposition and proposals’. […] Also, we regret this ostracism which appears as a measure of retaliation for our opposition to the pension reform and the tabling of a motion of censure, last March”, concludes the Liot group. Chaired by the deputy of the Meuse Bertrand Pancher , the Liot group is the smallest of the ten political groups in the National Assembly, bringing together centrist and overseas elected officials, Corsican nationalists and PS dissidents.