MOTION OF CENSURE. The Nupes will table this Wednesday a motion of censure against the government. But it is unlikely to win a majority and could even benefit the government. Explanations.
[Mis à jour le 6 juillet à 11h17] “Mrs. Borne’s refusal to seek Parliament’s confidence cannot suggest implicit confidence. Tomorrow, together with the NUPES intergroup, we will table a motion of no confidence,” said Boris Vallaud, president of the socialist group in the Assembly, Tuesday, July 5 at a press conference. The message is clear: as promised by the deputies of rebellious France on the evening of the second round of legislative elections, since the government does not submit to a vote of confidence in the Assembly, the 151 deputies of Nupes are responsible for convening a vote, by tabling a motion of censure. The motion will be tabled this Wednesday from 2:30 p.m., said the rebellious Mathilde Panot, even before Elisabeth Borne’s general policy speech to the Assembly, scheduled for 3 p.m.
The motion of censure is the means par excellence of control of the government by Parliament. However, it rarely works to Parliament’s advantage. Tabled by at least 58 deputies, it triggers a vote in the National Assembly which, if it wins a majority, causes the fall of the government. Except that the motion of censure of the Nupes has very little chance of bringing together a majority. Deputies from the National Rally and the Republicans party have indicated that they will not vote in unison with the left. This is all the difference with a vote of confidence: while the oppositions would have had no trouble voting together against a question of confidence in the government, they are more reluctant to agree to support a motion tabled by an opposing group. . So that Elisabeth Borne could even emerge strengthened from this motion of censure if, as is likely, it fails.
Who will vote for the motion of censure of the Nupes?
Tuesday, July 5, the four groups allied in the New Popular Ecological and Social Union announced to the press the filing of a joint motion of censure. However, they should not be able to rally the rest of the opposition to their attempt to overthrow the Borne government. “A motion of censure before having started, it seems quite childish as an approach, totally useless. I think that we will not lend themselves to this game”, thus indicated Olivier Marleix, president of the LR group in the Assembly, this Tuesday July 5 on LCI. “We will not join our voices to those of LFI”, decided the deputy LR Annie Genevard on BFMTV.
Same story on the side of the spokesperson for the National Rally, Sébastien Chenu, who lamented, Monday, July 4 on RTL, that “the far-left deputies want to block everything, break everything. We are not there to block everything, break everything.” Presumably, the motion of censure should therefore win the 151 votes of the Nupes intergroup, as well as perhaps the vote of a few independents and non-attached members, but not more.
When will the motion of censure against the Borne government be voted on?
La Nupes announced at a press conference its intention to table a motion of censure on Wednesday July 6 from 2:30 p.m. It will therefore be filed even before Elisabeth Borne’s general policy speech, scheduled for the same day at 3 p.m. in front of the deputies. However, article 49 of the Constitution, relating to motions of censure, indicates that “the vote cannot take place until forty-eight hours after its deposit”. We will therefore surely have to wait until Friday to see the deputies vote for or against the government.
What is a motion of censure?
The motion of censure has been a term at the heart of parliamentary news since the end of the legislative elections. Its objective: to lead, if it is adopted, to the resignation of the Prime Minister as well as of his government. The motion of censure can be spontaneous, directly tabled by deputies. They must be at least 58, or one tenth of the National Assembly. To be adopted, it must collect 289 votes “for”, that is to say the absolute majority of the hemicycle. In the event of a relative majority (a majority of “for” but less than 289), it is not adopted.
The motion of censure can also be provoked by the government when it engages its responsibility during the use of article 49.3: this article allows a text to be adopted without debate in the Assembly, unless a motion of censorship, filed within 24 hours, does not win an absolute majority. Under the Fifth Republic, 51 motions of censure were thus filed in the case of the use of 49.3 (we speak of “offensive motions”), but none won a majority.
How many motions of no confidence have led to the overthrow of a government?
Since the establishment of the Fifth Republic, 58 “spontaneous” motions of censure have been tabled against 20 prime ministers. But only one was adopted, in 1962 (read below). It must be said that bringing such a procedure to fruition is not easy. The hardest part being, for the oppositions, to agree on the same text. In July 2018, for example, Les Républicains, but also, with the same voice, the groups Nouvelle gauche, La France insoumise and Gauche democrate et republicaine had tabled a motion of censure against the government of Edouard Philippe after the revelations of the Benalla affair. But LR had not voted for the motion of censure from the left, which had nevertheless supported that tabled by the right. Result: neither had succeeded.
A motion of censure almost succeeded in 1992, against the reform of the common agricultural policy. While François Mitterrand, the President of the Republic, only had a relative majority in the National Assembly, the RPR (ex-LR) and the centrist parties UDF and UDC had agreed to table a motion of censure, soon joined by the Communist Party. The motion had failed to reach a majority by 3 votes.
The motion of censure was passed only once in the history of the Fifth Republic. It was in 1962, when General De Gaulle, President of the Republic, announced his intention to introduce direct universal suffrage in the presidential election. In the National Assembly, the Head of State only had a very relative majority (206 deputies). While the minimum number of votes required was 241, the motion of no confidence was supported by 280 deputies. It had therefore led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou. Except that De Gaulle had refused the resignation of his Prime Minister, dissolved the National Assembly, and called new legislative elections… from which he emerged with an enlarged majority, rising to 233 deputies.