While he left Matignon just a few days ago, Michel Barnier suffered the blow after this motion of censure which overthrew his government. Here he is “free” again and the former Prime Minister is now bitter. Michel Barnier is a disappointed and frustrated man but he refutes the argument that he did not see the blow delivered by Marine Le Pen coming.
He repeats it to anyone who will listen, he is upset, he who, since his appointment, repeated knowing that he could fall the next day. There have also been numerous allusions to this censorship. His first steps, he felt temporarily sheltered from censorship by the RN, but always aware of the difficulty of the task. He constantly reminds us in his speeches that “ never has a Prime Minister had so little time to present a budget “, but also that he knows he is under the threat of a possible motion of censure, but without ever believing that it would arrive so quickly.
During the last week before the vote on the motion, he increased his concessions, believing that these renunciations would dissuade the RN from censoring. He also tried calls for “responsibility” whenever he could, never ceasing to dramatize the issue. And when Marine Le Pen confirms to him by telephone that she remains inflexible, it’s a cold shower. “ I didn’t believe she would dare “, he blurted in private. But he now knows his fate is sealed, he will draw his first 49.3 without much hope of surviving.
Michel Barnier is angry at not having been able to implement a coalition?
For him, the common base, after difficult months, was starting to turn. With a budget, the tenant of Matignon dreamed of entering the future: medical deserts, the single social allowance in particular. He wants to believe that certain gains will last. The former Mr. Brexit judges that he has made his contribution to the culture of compromise. Useful for times to come.
Among his upcoming projects, there is a book which he had started writing before his arrival at Matignon. He wants to tell 120 to 130 moments of political life from which he learned a lesson. And three months will have been enough to add five or six chapters. Fifteen years old in politics, he intends to keep his capacity for indignation and enthusiasm, his advisors tell us. Even Donald Trump met last Saturday at the Élysée, after the ceremony of reopening of Notre-Dame urged him to continue, despite his 73 years.