Republicans divided on the threat of the motion of censure

In the accounting game, the switch can go to one side or the other. With 62 deputies in the National embly, The Republicans (LR) can bring down the government by joining their votes to those of the other opposition parties to reach the 289 necessary, or, on the contrary, by combining their vote with the relative majority .

However, mathematical logic creates dissension on the right. Tuesday September 12, in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), during the party’s parliamentary days, the boss of LR deputies Olivier Marleix announced that he intended to reserve the motion of censure for a single case: if the draft immigration law turns out ” lax “ to his eyes. His party categorically rejects regularization for trades “in tension” and notes that “the majority is divided” on this point after the column published by Releasesigned Monday by the left wing of the macronie and the Nupes parliamentarians, who defend such a measure.

For his part, Aurélien Pradié, who voted for the motion of censure in March on the pension reform, rejected by nine votes, does not want to restrict the motion of censure to the case mentioned by the leader of the LR group in the embly. The Lot deputy did not hesitate to call on his political family to consider ” seriously “ other motions of censure to defend his positions not only on immigration, but also on the budget.

“You don’t engage in a showdown with foam arms”explained in The Parisian the deputy for Lot, for whom “LR must accept being in opposition.” “A unique position that belongs to him”retorted an LR executive in Saint-Malo cited by Agence France-Presse.

On the motion of censure, caution is required for party leader Eric Ciotti: “It should not be an end in itself”he explains. “This procedure, like all those of m destruction, is not intended to be announced in advance”, he added. Mr. Ciotti, who said two weeks ago that the goal of his party “was not to bring down the government”however admitted to being “completely in tune” with Olivier Marleix to post some on “texts which are extremely dangerous for our country”.

LIOT will see “case by case”

“Nothing can be excluded” in terms of government censorship, warned Tuesday evening the president of the group of Libertés, independents, overseas and territories (LIOT) deputies Bertrand Pancher, following a discussion “frank” in Matignon with the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. “We will see on a case-by-case basis how it will go. If we do not obtain satisfaction, obviously we always reserve the possibility of filing a motion of censure”declared Mr. Pancher.

It also “explained to the Prime Minister that President Macron had taken it in stride” by receiving the political parties at the end of August in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis): “it would have been better to discuss with the leaders of the parliamentary groups” given that the government does not have a majority in the National embly.

MM. Pancher and Naegelen were the first political leaders to be received by the Prime Minister who began a series of bilateral meetings with the presidents of parliamentary groups and party leaders on the “subjects of the parliamentary re-entry”, including the controversial bill on immigration and the draft budget, on which Ms. Borne could again resort to article 49.3 of the Constitution.

On the budget, an agreement between LR and the government difficult

If Olivier Marleix did not threaten a motion of censure on the budget – unlike Aurélien Pradié – he nonetheless dampened the government’s hopes of finding a compromise with LR on public finances . He rejected the hand extended by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire to build a compromise on the public finance programming law (LPFP) which will be submitted to Parliament at the end of September in extraordinary session.

With a relative majority in the National embly, the government needs the support of some of the sixty LR deputies to adopt without recourse to 49.3 this text on the menu of the extraordinary session at the end of the month. Rejected last year by Parliament, this law sets France’s annual deficit and public debt targets until 2027.

“Let Bruno Le Maire not come today and count on us to give him a discharge of good management”, ured Mr. Marleix who recalled that the State debt had exceeded 3,000 billion euros. According to the government, a new parliamentary hiccup on the LPFP would cause France to lose around ten billion euros in European funds in 2023 and eight billion in 2024.