A week after his policy speech, and two days before the budget debate, a challenge awaits Michel Barnier. After Elisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal, the new Prime Minister in turn faces a motion of censure at the end of the day Tuesday October 8. The deputies of the New Popular Front nevertheless have little chance of succeeding in overthrowing the government, in the absence of support from the RN for their initiative. Follow our live stream.
A text presented by 192 left-wing elected officials. It is Olivier Faure who will take the podium, a priori around 4:30 p.m., to defend the text co-signed by almost the entire left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front. “This will be the moment of truth. We will see who opposes the government and who does not”declared to AFP the first secretary of the PS, who intends to point out in his speech a “government turning its back on the Popular Front but especially on the Republican Front, and on the vote of the voters”.
A vote at the end of the day. Michel Barnier will then respond to Olivier Faure. Then will come a long series of interventions from political groups, before a vote whose result should only be known at the end of the day. The choreography is still imbued with solemnity, but it has also become commonplace since 2022. It will be, according to the National Assembly’s count, the 35th motion of censure of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term.
The budget in the viewfinder. This is one of the questions of the ballot: will members or ex-members of the presidential camp, offended by the very right-wing composition of the government, go so far as to censor it? Still worried about certain avenues, such as reducing the number of civil servants, MoDem deputy Erwan Balanant does not imagine “no one at this stage is going towards a motion of censure”.
A motion of censure doomed to failure. Michel Barnier should survive without too much difficulty. Even if the 192 signatory deputies voted in favor, with certain independents from Liot, the bar of 289 votes seems unattainable without those of the 141 deputies of the RN-Ciotti alliance. Because the far-right executives, led by Marine Le Pen, do not intend to overthrow the government at this stage. “We chose not to descend into chaos, not to immediately censor Michel Barnier to give him the opportunity to develop a project (…) if it does not suit us we will censor”argued Monday on RMC the group’s deputy president Sébastien Chenu.