After weeks of frontal opposition on the budget and motions of censure, something happened overnight from Tuesday to last Wednesday: the deputies voted the amending budget 2022, without 49.3, despite the absence of a majority absolute.
>> End of the rebate on fuels: “France is on the verge of burn-out”, worry the deputies of the majority
The text was adopted thanks to the abstention of Republicans and Socialists, satisfied that some of their proposals have been heard. They were satisfied but they did not vote for it, because one can imagine that they did not agree with the text as a whole. But for a question of political positioning, they did not want to block it. This is where abstention becomes a useful tool again. “Abstention allows texts to pass“, assumes a communist deputy. Vis-à-vis its voters, it avoids appearing as an elected official who votes blindly or systematically against texts that sometimes go in the direction of the general interest. This is particularly the dilemma of the left for the text on renewable energies currently under discussion.
For now, the Nupes is divided on the “EnR” bill on renewable energies. For some rebels or environmentalists, this text does not go far enough and does not call into question the liberal energy market: it will therefore be a vote against.
“Mediatically and politically”
But, as a Nupes deputy confided to franceinfo: “There is the text and the context”. So how do you vote against a law that wants, for example, to speed up the installation of wind turbines? Can the left-wing electorate accept the blocking of such a text at a time when the climate issue is at the heart of concerns? “Mediatically and politically, it is impossible to vote against”, thus theorizes a rebellious deputy. But this is a position that is not shared within LFI. In fact, the official line has not yet been decided, but the left in the Assembly finds itself a little stuck: the environmentalist, socialist and communist senators voted for the text last week. An abstention could allow this text to move forward without appearing to support the government.
The executive is obviously looking for this abstention: today on renewable energies, tomorrow on pensions. Depending on the subject, the government seeks abstention on the left or on the right. With some 250 members of the majority in the Assembly, it takes 30 and 40 abstentions, but as one connoisseur of parliament puts it, “Abstention pays off“. This means that the majority must let go of ballast and accept proposals from the opposition so that the text collects at least abstentions. This is the whole mechanism that is currently at play behind the scenes. And a minister summarizes: “We must move forward with method, malice and parliamentary technique.“