Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne “is legitimate, because it is the President of the Republic who appointed it”estimated Michel Barnier, Wednesday June 22 on franceinfo, while the leader of La France insoumise, he thinks the opposite. “I don’t have Mr. Mélenchon as a reference”retorted the former minister Les Républicains.
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If it is legitimate, according to him, “The question is: to do what?” Michel Barnier wonders about the lessons that the executive must draw from the legislative elections. “What policy? Are we going to learn the lessons of the warning given by the French people who are intelligent? Are we going to change our method? Have respect, finally, for the National Assembly, for the French, for the unions, for the local authorities, for what are called the intermediary bodies? Are we going to change policy? That is the question. “The question of who does what is another question, less important to me than the substance of things”he insisted.
Can E. Borne stay at Matignon? ➡ “It’s not me who will say who should be Prime Minister or if Ms. Borne can stay. The question is what to do? What policy?”, believes Michel Barnier.
The live https://t.co/cEwi3c61QM pic.twitter.com/q6NFbZqX0m
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) June 22, 2022
To break the impasse, in the National Assembly, former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe pleaded on BFMTV on Tuesday for “a compromise” between the presidential majority and the right. “Is he in the best position to give us lessons and call us to this grand coalition when he contributed to this attempt to erase the Republican right five years ago now?”, replies Michel Barnier. For him, the absence of an absolute majority must lead to a change of political practice. “We are going to have to move from the culture of arrogance to the culture of compromise”something to which “we are not used to it in France”. In this “culture of arrogance, the power decides everything, all alone, the deputies are useless”.
“The first effort must be made by the authorities, to change methods and change policies.”
Michael Barnierat franceinfo
For Michel Barnier, “compromise is not compromise, it is not the abandonment of our identity that we tried to erase”. And LR has his card to play. “We are going to regain our identity, we are going to talk to the French again, we are going to rebuild a project, we are going to learn from our failures, but we need a republican right, a strong center in this country.”
“Anything that is in line with our commitments, we will approve it, we will correct it, we will complete it. Anything that is contrary, we will refuse it” : here is the line of the Republicans according to Michel Barnier, who reaffirms that LR is in “the opposition”. “We must remain loyal to our constituents. That means no blocking, no obstruction, no allegiance.”
What place for LR? ➡️ “Anything that is in line with our commitments, we will approve it, we will correct it, we will complete it. Anything that is contrary, we will refuse it”, says Michel Barnier, who lists nuclear power, pensions, the power of ‘purchase. pic.twitter.com/iK8yqKCeYL
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) June 22, 2022