Weird ! Everyone feigns astonishment, concern, adds to the “unprecedented nature of the social crisis we are going through” since the start of the parliamentary debate on pension reform. Strange simulacrum of self-persuasion…
Because it’s a little quick to forget that, for thirty years, pension reforms have all been unpopular and have all led to the same sequences: obstruction of opposition in the hemicycle, union anger, strike by public officials (largely spared moreover by the reform), violence in the street and then… a return to calm in a climate of bitterness and frustration. This year again, the country finds this familiar representation, these well-known postures and these speeches already heard.
The well-crafted scenario over three decades, however, had an exception this time: the incomprehensible behavior of LR deputies whose inglorious motivations effectively led to the risk of the overthrow of the government and the high-risk dissolution of the National Assembly. An additional crisis in a context already marked by geopolitical, economic, financial threats which would require, on the contrary, a strong executive and solid and responsible government parties.
Ridiculous Gaullist apprentices
Let’s look at them and face it. It is a very bad film delivered to us by deputies who nevertheless claim to be from the right of government. Make no mistake about it, their action will have harmed their party more than the government itself since their motivation was based exclusively on two arguments: fear of being unpopular and hatred of Macronism. This is to forget that for the most part, the voters they will have to win back are those millions of right-wing French people who voted for Macron and who will forgive them neither their cowardice in the face of difficult decisions, nor their bigotry with regard to a president whose reforms must naturally be supported when these correspond to the program of the right and oppose others. By doing so, they will have made their speech completely incomprehensible and the image of LR durably blurred in the face of the excesses of the extremes.
By claiming “freedom of debate” to the applause of the hilarious LFI and RN deputies, they will have added to the already twilight state of LR two new evils: inconsistency and disunity. By claiming a rediscovery of social Gaullism or Chiraquism without even knowing what they were really referring to, they will have, out of levity, done everything to prevent a reform that is nevertheless vital for our children.
By demanding concessions from the government, which they obtained while maintaining their refusal to vote, they proved incapable of embodying any credibility. By denouncing the use of 49.3, a tool that is nevertheless inseparable from the Fifth Republic and its founder, our Gaullist apprentices were ridiculous. And in this beautiful mess, how did the two “already LR candidates for 2027” behave? One – despite being a specialist in the subject – spoke out against the reform and the other hid… while letting his friends vote against it!
The duty to tell the truth to the French
Ultimately, this strategy will have had only one effect: to leave Emmanuel Macron a boulevard to embody the courage of reform alone… by applying a right-wing program. Clarification is essential to try to save what remains of the right of government. Because the future of LR cannot be that of a populist party whose sole credo is sterile and systematic opposition to the government.
The Republicans will only be able to become an anchor and a reference for the French again by preserving what makes their trademark: the duty to tell the truth to the French, to reform our social model to preserve the essentials in the name of general interest up to and including taking the short-term risk of being unpopular. Their constituents, or those who have been, cannot be satisfied with a joint tenancy where each member lives according to his own rhythm and his own rules. It is time for the concept of political family to regain meaning. But, today, it is above all necessary to put an end to this grotesque farce quickly before this inglorious sequence turns truly into tragedy…