On Thursday, March 21, the communist group in the Senate, with the complicity of the rest of the left, and especially the group Les Républicains (LR), eliminated the article of law that authorized the ratification of CETA, the free trade agreement between the European Union. and Canada. The agreement is a little less unnatural than it seems, since communists and the right have shared a long history of skepticism towards free trade agreements and the European Union. Didn’t Bruno Retailleau, then president of the LR group, learn the lesson of the sovereigntist Philippe de Villiers? In this case, it was an unusual but possible convergence between the senatorial right and left to oppose the Macronist government. “That’s for sure, we won’t be able to do as much anymore.”recognizes Ian Brossat (French Communist Party, PCF, Paris).
The three left groups (64 socialists, 18 communists, 16 environmentalists) no longer face only the right-wing senatorial majority, but a much larger majority, linked to the government coalition that ranges from LR to the Macronists. In fact, the socialist group becomes the first opposition group to the government in the Senate, since LR can no longer claim that place. “In some ways, it will be easier to be against both the government majority and the senatorial majority. Until then, we sometimes did some contortions.” describes Pierre Ouzoulias (PCF, Hauts-de-Seine). It is the return of a purely right-left debate, with even less possibility of taking some “blows” to the left.
The president of the environmental group, Guillaume Gontard, still wonders if the left will have room for maneuver. The senator from Isère recalls some convenient alliances on tax justice and super-dividends with certain centrists. “And then the “slightly less right-wing” ministers might want to try to trust us a little to exist. “The government does not really have a line, the leadership of Matignon or the Elysée no longer exists, we could influence certain arbitrations,” He waits.
The most reluctant communists
Relations are fluid between the three leftist groups and their three presidents. The common fight against the pension reform in 2023 is an example. The absence of “rebels” in the Luxembourg Palace also facilitates these convergences, while the socialist group is mostly very hostile to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s troops. But all this remains informal and some are surprised that there is no time for the established discussion between left-wing senators. Until then, only the end-of-session cup was held, organized by the socialist questoria, to which members of the other two groups were invited. So once a year.
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