From its first steps, Barnier’s young government was caught under the carpet on Tuesday 24 September. The new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, made comments on immigration or justice that Marine Le Pen did not deny, but against which two of her colleagues spoke out. As for the young Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, he considered for his part that the National Rally (RN) did not fit into the “republican arc”, which earned him reprimands from Marine herself and a call to the presidency at the request of Michel Barnier. Two setbacks that indicate the influence of the extreme right in this new executive.
Breaking free from the common rule decreed by the Prime Minister towards his government, which “act before communicating”Bruno Retailleau has been omnipresent in the media since his arrival at Place Beauvau. He sets the tone for the period that is opening: “Only one motto: restore order”and wants, he says, “take all means” do “reduce immigration to France”. New law on the subject, reform of the State Medical Aid (AME), reinstatement of the “crime of illegal residence” abolished under François Hollande, random border controls, “Let’s see how far we can go” he said on Monday evening on TF1.
The convictions of the Vendée senator are well known to the political class, but hearing them echoed from the Ministry of the Interior disgusts not only the left, but also part of Macron. “Retailleau would make Sarkozy look like a leftist, jokes unregistered Vienna MP Sacha Houlié, former chairman (Renaissance) of the National Assembly’s legal committee. It’s the return of the Trocadéro right!
More annoying to government cohesion, the Vendéens targeted justice, asking “to change a penal policy that, for a long time, has allowed the consolidation of this right to non-execution of sentences.” A stone in the garden of his fellow Keeper of the Seals, Didier Migaud. Mr. Retailleau “We must know that justice is independent in our country” AND “This is not always correct” pretend that she “it is slow or does not condemn enough”, The former socialist MP from Isère responded, saying that he was ” ready ” have “a certain number of exchanges with Bruno Retailleau.”
If the confrontation between justice and the interior is a classic of cabinet life, the exchange of arms between the two men has a negative effect, while the government is barely installed, and Michel Barnier called, on Sunday afternoon, to “cohesion” already “fraternity” within your team. “Bruno Retailleau started attacking the justice system because he does not want to attack his police officers and does not want to say that we have a disastrous rate of clarification” (6% for theft, 7% for theft in 2022, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior), mocks the former socialist Minister of Justice, Jean-Jacques Urvoas..
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