Published on Sep 12, 2023 at 5:02 p.m.
Hold me back or I’ll make trouble. For the return of LR deputies this Tuesday in Saint-Malo, their leader, Olivier Marleix, chose to puff out his chest. The elected representative of Eure-et-Loir once again threatens in “Le Figaro” a motion of censure, if the government persists in wanting to regularize undocumented workers with his immigration bill. It is “neither a totem of virility nor a taboo,” he says.
The text will not arrive in the embly until next February, but the boss of the LR deputies prefers to take the lead. Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne seemed ready this summer to abandon the measure hated by gaining the good graces of the right. But the tide has turned. The ministers, Gérald Darmanin in the lead, defends the balance of the bill.
And the left wing of the majority, led by Sacha Houlié, is increasing pressure in favor of regularizations with a column signed in “Libération” by several figures from the left, such as the communist Fabien Roussel or the ecologist Julien Bayou.
Perilous European elections
The Republicans need to show that they are in clear and resolute opposition to Emmanuel Macron. Next year’s European elections promise to be very delicate. The Reconquest list led by Marion Maréchal has already announced the color: it intends to siphon off their electorate.
The right will most likely not vote the public finance programming law at the end of the month and the budget afterwards. But being uncompromising on immigration appears to her as life insurance so as not to disappear from the radar screens. Even if this distances it from economic circles seeking regularization and if it locks it into a very identity-based positioning.
Troublemakers
Problem is, it’s a little hard to believe in this motion of censure. Because it would have a good chance of being adopted and leading to early legislative elections which could be painful for LR. All this a few months before the Paris Olympics. Would the right take the risk of being seen as the troublemaker at a time when the economy is going through a difficult time?
The use of this weapon of m destruction is, moreover, far from unanimous among its ranks. Laurent Wauquiez has already made it known how badly he thinks about it. The centrists of the UDI with whom the Republicans form the majority in the Senate are in favor of very supervised regularization of illegal immigrants.
By brandishing the motion of censure, Olivier Marleix is banking above all on the dissuasive effect and intends to carry weight. A bluff of sorts.