They don’t know each other well… but they already hate each other. The marriage of convenience concluded between The Republicans (LR) and the central bloc is floundering. It was enough, this Wednesday, October 9, for an obscure internal vote in the National Assembly for the team to experience its first big shock. The left took over the presidency of the Economic Affairs Commission, vacant after the entry of Antoine Armand into the government, due to a disagreement between Macronie and the troops of Laurent Wauquiez. Apparently anecdotal, the episode illustrates the gulf separating the coalition parties.
At first glance, everything was sewn with white thread. Three committee chairs were put to the vote, after the entry of their heads into Michel Barnier’s executive. All were occupied by members of the central bloc, following an agreement reached this summer between the ex-majority and the boss of the Right Republican (LR) group Laurent Wauquiez. At the time, they got along wonderfully. But the Olympic spirit did not last.
The appointment of the Savoyard to Matignon whetted the appetite of the former Sarkozy minister. Since the right is back in business, isn’t it legitimate for it to collect a commission? And what does it matter if the DR group only has 47 deputies. This weekend, Laurent Wauquiez exchanges with his counterpart Ensemble pour la République (EPR) Gabriel Attal. He comes up against the intransigence of the former Prime Minister. Well, let’s play then. The right let the rebellious Aurélie Trouvé succeed Antoine Armand on Wednesday, not giving her precious votes to Stéphane Travert. A close friend of Laurent Wauquiez claims a lesson in modesty inflicted on the central block. “In the absence of an agreement, everyone is brought back to their rightful weight. And the left passes.”
“The LRs are not lawful…”
The former majority would do well to spare themselves this arithmetic course. As soon as the ballot was sealed, indignation spread through the Telegram loop of EPR deputies. “It’s serious what happened”, “The LRs are not straight…” “Unacceptable […] The stone in Barnier’s shoe is not us but his own political family.” MP Eric Bothorel promises on We calm down. What is this tweet with a gun, Eric?”, blurted out a colleague on Telegram.
At 11:28 a.m., Gabriel Attal addresses his flock. He denounces “blackmail” by Laurent Wauquiez and calls for “the agreement sealed in July”. “We refused to enter into pressure and device schemes,” he salutes. On September 19, Gabriel Attal raised this sensitive subject at the end of a meeting with the leaders of the coalition and Michel Barnier. “Commission presidents will join the government. The deal still stands?” No one says no. Feeling of “betrayal” versus adaptation to the new political situation: dialogue of the deaf.
The Prime Minister notes the damage. Forced, powerless, to express “his concern regarding the solidarity of the different entities of the common base which was ultimately not there”. He made this known to Gabriel Attal during a telephone exchange. For his part, Laurent Wauquiez sent him a message to explain his approach. A devotee of Emmanuel Macron preferred to use irony in a message addressed to the head of state. “Too bad there is no Minister for Relations with Parliament!”
“No one at home really wants this forced marriage”
The union has not been consummated, divorce awaits. To this combination of circumstances, it will soon be necessary to add quotation marks. Too many rivalries, so little closeness. No intergroup was created to bring together the three group presidents of the central bloc and Laurent Wauquiez. Around the strong man of the right, we are already promising to present LR candidates in the partial legislative elections in Hauts-de-Seine and the Ardennes. The putative candidate for 2027, anxious to embody alternation, fears above all of merging into Macronism. We work together, but we won’t die together! This is good, Gabriel Attal also wishes to highlight his differences with the right. And only intends to be accountable for the projects that it supports. Overcoming divisions cannot be combined with allegiance to a conservative party. “I think that no one here really wants this forced marriage,” analyzes an EPR deputy.
Could it be otherwise? Too many corpses haunt the cupboards of this strange shared accommodation. One wrong word, and they emerge from the darkness. On Tuesday October 8, Michel Barnier comes to meet the EPR deputies. He then evokes the RN parliamentary niche of October 30, during which the abolition of the pension reform will be put to the vote. “I am counting on your presence,” he tells his troops. The remark goes badly. The kings of absenteeism are not rather the 47 LR deputies, these elected officials more comfortable in their constituency than in the hemicycle? These self-employed people, who let go of the executive on pensions in 2023 in defiance of their ideological DNA? Here is Michel Barnier once again accused of targeting his new friends to the detriment of his historic family. A word escapes you, and resentment flows out of the river. The latter is reciprocal. The right has not forgotten the arrogance of the triumphant macronism of 2017. “You have been humiliated for a long time,” a Modem leader recently confided to LR MP Annie Genevard, who has since become Minister of Agriculture.
Real-time inventory
This forced marriage has an original defect. It unites political families ready to confront each other in 2027. Thus, the right sets up its political action as an exercise in inventorying macronism. The ex-majority, the susceptible type, fulminates against these lessons of governance from a party that has fallen to 5% of the vote. The proof is through security. When Bruno Retailleau promises to “restore order”, she hears that Gérald Darmanin caused the disorder.
The proof is in the budget. The central bloc mocks the lessons of public finance professed by LR, a party hardly sparing in expensive amendments during previous finance laws. Everyone takes a biased look at this relationship. “Barnier sometimes gives the impression that we have only made mistakes for seven years. This does not help our deputies to want to work together,” notes a former minister. An LR deputy assumes this rough coexistence. “We cannot bear the pain of budgetary savings if we are not able to say that it is the fault of those who were there before.” LR created the real-time inventory right. His ally prefers to wait until 2027 to settle his scores. Tomorrow’s ambitions, cause of today’s conflicts.
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