To reassure themselves or justify their existence, some remember that if Barnier’s government has only a weak parliamentary base in the National Assembly, it has a large majority in the Senate. The Macronists only have a small group in the Luxembourg Palace, but the sum of the LR groups (by far the first), the centrist Union (especially with the MoDem) and the Independents (Horizons) gives a clear majority. This new arithmetic reality is not fully seen in this Wednesday’s question session to the Government. Thus, the ministers of the presidential coalition were left alone in front of some 338 senators. François Patriat (Côtes-d’Or), president of the Renaissance group, was the only one who supported his ministers.
Philippe Mouiller (LR, Deux-Sèvres) was even the author of a particularly tough question about the deficits in the social accounts against his new government partners. “The Senate will bring fundamental reforms in health and dependency because it is through reforms that we will avoid finding ourselves in the same debate next year, and with perspectives”warned the president of the Social Affairs Commission, in what may not be a threat but not a sign of great confidence either. While the Government intends to rely heavily on the Senate to restore a budget text that promises to be dismantled by the Assembly, the Luxembourg Palace may not be conquered territory.
Except, perhaps, the LR ministers. Agnès Canayer, until recently senator for Seine-Maritime, was applauded by her former group. But, without a doubt, it is Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior and former president of the LR group, who dominates. The elected of Vendée, the only heavyweight in the government, is the owner of the space in a chamber that he knows well. So with a question about drug trafficking in Vaucluse (“What we did against terrorism, we will have to do against drug trafficking”) and about the fight against Islamism (“Your anger is my anger.”), plays on velvet. “Here, Retailleau, I am Madonna.”said a left-wing senator, half amused, half disappointed.
