The aftermath is not always easy in politics. France had barely recovered from the warning shot sent Sunday by the voters in the presidential majority that politics immediately resumed its rights. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, presiding since Sunday a minority government which, with only 245 elected, no longer has a majority to govern, the macronie gathered his troops at the Elysee on Monday to decide on the strategy to follow. Starting with whether she should change prime minister.
Throughout the day, calls for resignation multiplied, coming from all the opposition parties. “Emmanuel Macron must take into account the result of these elections, he must change his political line, change the prime minister and the government”, hammered the former candidate of the right Les Républicains (LR) for the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse. Same story with the National Rally (RN) which, with 89 elected, is the party that has recorded the most gains in these legislative elections. It will be “difficult” for Elisabeth Borne to govern as it is, said her vice-president, Louis Aliot. “Mme Borne was sent boxed. She has to leave, she no longer has the authority to be prime minister. His fate is sealed, ”said the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI) Alexis Corbière.
However, no decision has filtered from the meeting held Monday at the Elysee Palace between the Prime Minister and the President, which was also attended by François Bayrou and Édouard Philippe, respectively bosses of MoDem and Horizons, both members of the majority. Seriously weakened, the Prime Minister must deliver her general policy statement on July 5. On this occasion, she should face a motion of censure, if we are to believe the announcement made by the Insoumis on Sunday evening. However, it is not certain that a majority is ready to vote for it since neither the elected representatives of the RN and even less those of LR are preparing to follow the Insoumis in this exercise. Even on the left, unanimity is not required. “It is not a common position of the NUPES at this stage,” said the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure.
The first opposition party
When the first deputies elected the day before began to arrive at the Palais Bourbon, the fight was already underway to find out who represented the first opposition force in the chamber. From the morning, in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where she was largely re-elected, the president of the RN, Marine Le Pen, hastened to confirm to the press that she would itself take the head of the parliamentary group of the RN, which she considers to be the first opposition group in the assembly.
With its 89 deputies, ten times more than in the previous assembly, the RN indeed represents the second political force, ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, La France insoumise (LFI), which only comes in third position with 72 elected. Certainly, with its 131 deputies, the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (NUPES), led by Mélenchon and bringing together the rebels, environmentalists, socialists and communists, could claim the title of first opposition group. But this simple electoral alliance is not what is called a parliamentary group.
This is why, on Monday, after judging the results of the previous day “fairly disappointing” for the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had seen himself Prime Minister for weeks, proposed at short notice that the NUPES be constituted “into a only group in Parliament”. A spontaneous proposal, which surprised its own militants and which was immediately rejected by the three other parties of this electoral alliance. Each party recalling that the role of this temporary alliance was precisely to allow each of them to form a group in the Assembly. “The left is plural, it is represented in its diversity in the National Assembly. […] Wanting to remove this diversity is a mistake, ”said the president of the socialist group, Valérie Rabault.
And the Finance Committee?
Behind these rivalries hides the fight over who will chair the assembly’s committees, including the influential Finance Committee, now headed by former LR deputy Éric Woerth, who rallied to Emmanuel Macron. Traditionally, this commission has always been chaired by the first opposition group in the assembly. The stakes are high since the commission, which plays a strategic role in the preparation of the budget, can hear the Minister of the Economy and even lift the tax secrecy of a company.
At the head of the first opposition group, Marine Le Pen immediately claimed the presidency. A few hours later, Clémentine Autain, of NUPES, did the same, stating that “it is not the biggest opposition group, but the candidate which receives the most votes” which can claim the presidency of this prestigious commission.
For the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, this presidency belongs by right to the RN, even if, he says, “it would shock me” to see Marine Le Pen at the head of the Finance Commission. But, he says, “the Constitution is binding on us, we must never play with constitutional elements”.
While the work of the Assembly will begin on June 28, the election of committee chairmen is to be held on June 30. By then, we should know more about how Emmanuel Macron intends to forge alliances, either on an ad hoc basis or by proposing a government pact to another party. The only compatible would be Les Républicains, whose 61 deputies would give an absolute majority (set at 289 seats) to the president. Hounded all day on this subject, the president of the Republicans, Christian Jacob, repeated that it was “neither a question of a pact, nor of a coalition, nor of an agreement of any form whatsoever” .
Tuesday and Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron will receive the political representatives who will form a group in the Assembly in order, it is said, to “discuss and exchange for the best interests of the nation”. Reshuffle, appointment of a new prime minister, political agreement? The government has about a week left to determine how it intends to push its reforms through an assembly which, over the next five years, is likely to be largely hostile to it.