THE first motion of censure against the government of the French Prime Minister, Michel Barnierdid not obtain the votes necessary to overthrow the executive, but it showed what we already knew, that its continuity depends on the will of the far-right leader. Marine Le Pen.
Faced with a hostile left, which has put its 193 deputies on a war footing against a head of government in office for barely a month, the Executive relied on the votes of the parties which support it, the Macronists and their allies and the traditional right and those of the extreme right.
The left’s motion of censure he only managed to gather four votes from regionalist deputies and he was far from having reached the 289 men he needed to overthrow the executive. But the motion showed that Barnier depends on Le Pen and that the left is the only major parliamentary opposition.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure, responsible for defending the motion, recalled that it was the left which won the legislative elections in July and that his government therefore lacks legitimacy. “It is the government of a destroyed party, supported by another party beaten three times in a month and supported thanks to the far right rejected by two thirds of the French,” Faure said.
Barnier responded that, although he does not have an absolute majority, his government is based on alliance of macronists and the moderate right, which has more than 200 deputies, the largest group in the chamber (577). A weak majority but which the former European Commissioner wants to strengthen with precise agreements which he considers “vital” in the face of the catastrophic situation of the public coffers, to the restoration of which he called on all the groups.
The Prime Minister will present his draft budget this week and expects it, which will include €40 billion in spending cuts and 20 billion tax increases for the richesta new harmony is created which allows it to survive.
Unpopular rather than irresponsible
“I take the risk of being unpopular, but not irresponsible,” shouted Barnier in the face of cries from the left. Like last week, when he presented his government program, Barnier once again took advantage of the urgency of the budgetary situation to ask for oxygen, since the president cannot dissolve the chamber and call new elections before next summer.
A complex equation because all the different parliamentary groups impose contradictory demands and the country’s mayors have already warned that they will not be willing to tighten their belts as demanded by the executive.
The different components of the left have criticized Barnier for “continue Macron’s failed policy with the support of the extreme right”, as the environmentalist MP Cyrielle Chatellain replied. Or for having “attacked the Government”, as indicated by the spokesperson for the left France Insoumise, Clémence Guetté, who recalled that the Executive includes ministers who voted against the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution and against homosexual marriage.
The government’s allies criticized the left for refusing dialogue and the socialists for linking their future to that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise, instead of making responsible proposals. But The far right, as expected, saved the Executiveeven if he did it by letting a sword of Damocles hang over his future.
“We are eager to vote for censorship, we do not exclude doing so in the future, but we will not give this pleasure to the extreme left (…) We do not like their government, but “The absence of a government would be worse,” said its spokesperson, Guillaume Bigot, who took Le Pen’s place at the helm.
The MP, however, warned that the sentence could be different if the Government did not respect its commitments in its three major demands, improving the purchasing power of the middle classes, improving security and the fight against immigration. .
“We have seen that a ‘tweet’ from Marine Le Pen serves to change the position of the Government or that of certain of its ministers (…) We plan to put pressure on in a logic of lesser evil”, insisted Bigot .
But he rejected accusations from the left that the far right was the crutch of the executive and recalled that Mélenchon and Macron joined forces to prevent many of Le Pen’s deputies from being elected, which left them prevented from reaching a parliamentary majority even though with eleven million votes, they were the party with the most votes.
