Its paw is immaculate white. On Tuesday September 24, Laurent Wauquiez showed all his goodwill towards Michel Barnier during a meeting of the Republican Right (DR) deputies. Forgotten, apparently, the tensions with the Savoyard around the composition of the government. The deputy for Haute-Loire calls on his troops to be “irreproachable” with the Prime Minister.
During the exchange, a question was raised: shouldn’t the right draw out its budgetary savings proposals before the General Policy Declaration (DPG), scheduled for October 1? “That would not be polite towards Barnier,” says Laurent Wauquiez. He will wait until October 2 to present his plan for 50 billion euros in cuts. There is never any question of an increase in taxation in this program. The measure was established as a “red line” in LR’s legislative pact unveiled in July.
Michel Barnier, however, lifted this taboo the day before, by announcing a targeted increase in certain levies to stem the deterioration of public finances in his DPG. Faced with this conflict of loyalties, Laurent Wauquiez is making a strategic withdrawal. He half-heartedly accepts a “temporary, controlled, limited and fair” increase in taxation to respond to the “hidden budgetary situation”. Here is the right engaged in a curious battle. On the defensive, because forced to swallow ideological snakes out of solidarity with “his” Prime Minister. On the offensive against Macronie, which she holds responsible for these measures.
“We sometimes put it on mute for Michel”
This Thursday, October 10, Laurent Saint-Martin and Antoine Armand exchange by videoconference with some DR deputies, before the presentation of the finance bill. Véronique Louwagie reminds the Bercy duo of their hostility to an increase in taxation, but takes note of the French “abysmal deficit”. “The government does not have the means to do otherwise in such a short period,” she told L’Express.
Laurent Wauquiez mandated the MP for Orne to find an alternative provision to the postponement of the increase in pensions, a measure repulsive to the right. This quest takes place behind the scenes, far from the television sets. Please calm things down. The DR deputies are not in symbiosis with the project prepared by Michel Barnier, but are moderating their public expressions. MEPs would like an increased share of the reduction in public spending in the overall effort, but are refraining from any inflammatory tweets. They rely instead on debates in session, and the examination of amendments. “The equation is complicated,” admits an LR deputy. “We sometimes put it on mute for Michel.”
Laurent Wauquiez repeated it this Tuesday to his troops: “There is no room for rebellious people.” The MP cannot afford to shake up a barely appointed LR government. Too early. The right-wing electorate would not understand it. “As a result, there is no place for him either,” jokes an elected official. The day after the appointment of Michel Barnier, a DR executive summarized the difficult equation submitted to the unsuccessful candidate in Beauvau. “He finds himself president of a group which has no other choice but to support Barnier.” The boss of the Ensemble pour la République (EPR) deputies Gabriel Attal privately notes the relative freedom of his counterpart, “more stuck than [lui] towards the government.”
“Neither responsible nor consistent”
He would like to find a place on the poster. Laurent Wauquiez poses the examination of the budget as an inventory exercise of macronism. “We are inheriting a catastrophic situation. We must restore budgetary seriousness in the middle of all this,” he said on October 1 on RTL. The central bloc failing on its economic competence, a waking dream! The right is practicing this inventory in real time in unison. She will not gain any points this fall, but she intends to lose them to the Macronists. Between the 2025 and 2027 budget, there are only two years.
The former majority would do well to spare themselves these economic lessons. Isn’t the LR group divided on pension reform? Did he not plead for costly aid to lower the price at the pump? Bruno Le Maire pointed out in March the “124 billion expenses” proposed by the right in the 2024 budget. “The way in which Wauquiez charges our balance sheet is not acceptable, annoys the EPR deputy Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade. The right does not stopped explaining to us that we weren’t doing enough during the crises, and now explains to us that we did too much. This is neither responsible nor consistent. Michel Barnier deplored on Wednesday “his concern regarding the solidarity of the different entities of the common base” after a skirmish between Gabriel Attal and Laurent Wauquiez. He hasn’t stopped worrying.
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