Unfazed despite the heckling of deputies, Michel Barnier outlined his priorities on Tuesday, largely focused on reducing the country’s “colossal” debt, addressing both his fragile coalition and the adversaries who threaten to bring him down.
In a speech lasting 1 hour 23 minutes, the new prime minister, from the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party, a partner of his government, also addressed migration policy “which we no longer control satisfactorily”.
By advocating in particular the “exceptional extension of the detention of foreigners in an irregular situation”. And without refraining from restricting the granting of visas to countries reluctant to take back their nationals.
After a minute of silence in tribute to Philippine, a student killed ten days ago in Paris, the chamber quickly returned to its noisy and dissipated habits.
The deputies of La France insoumise brandished their voter cards in protest against the appointment of this 73-year-old prime minister, the oldest in the Ve Republic, solution concocted by Emmanuel Macron after the dissolution, when the left bloc came first in the legislative elections.
Slow diction, impassive in the face of attempts at interruption, citing Charles De Gaulle, Pierre Mendès France, Michel Rocard and Édouard Philippe, the mountain man Michel Barnier said he was “ready to climb the obstacles one by one” because “we are collectively on a ridge line”, with the “sword of Damocles” of a “colossal financial debt” and an ecological debt.
” Effort “
Blue suit and pink ribbon on the lapel, for the Pink October campaign against breast cancer, the Prime Minister presented his “five priority projects” on purchasing power, public services – school and health in the lead – and security , immigration and “fraternity”.
First commitment: reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025 then below 3% in 2029, while the deficit should reach 6% this year.
With first a reduction in spending which, in 2025, will represent “two thirds of the recovery effort”, he specified.
Second “remedy”: “effectiveness of spending” by “hunting for duplicates”.
The third remedy will be the most painful: fiscal leverage.
With “an effort limited in time which must be shared, in a demand for tax justice” by the largest companies and the “most fortunate” French people, he explained.
The Prime Minister will have a lot to do: on behalf of the Macronist deputies, Gabriel Attal warned that he would “choose savings” rather than “taxes”.
“We must start by making savings” and “put an end to whatever the cost”, “which has not been done”, launched LR leader Laurent Wauquiez, attacking the results of the previous Macronist ministers, also partners in Michel Barnier’s coalition.
” Courtesy “
Deprived of a majority, the Prime Minister will not seek a vote of confidence. The left, however, promised to table a motion of censure this week, which the RN said it did not want to vote for straight away.
The leader of the far-right deputies Marine Le Pen praised the “sense of courtesy” of Michel Barnier, but demanded a new immigration law taking up the measures censored by the Constitutional Council of the previous law, which had torn the Assembly to the presidential camp.
She placed this request among the “red lines” likely to motivate censorship.
But she appreciated that Mr. Barnier said he was “open” to a reflection “without ideology” on proportional representation, demanded by the centrist allies of the MoDem as well as by the RN.
On the left, the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon castigated a “usurper of electoral legitimacy” who “pleads for compromise through intrigue and prides himself on applying the laws he fought”. “It is not an action program, but a countdown to liquidation.”
“Red lines”
After ironically speaking about the “red lines, sometimes very red” of the different parties, the Prime Minister set his own: “No tolerance” of racism, anti-Semitism, violence against women, communitarianism, “no accommodation on secularism” and no questioning of the Veil law on abortion as well as marriage for all and the PMA.
Mr. Barnier also mentioned, as when he arrived at Matignon, the “ecological debt”, confirming the continued development of nuclear power, “but also of renewable energies”.
Amid cries of “repeal, repeal” from the left aimed at pension reform, he said he was open to “possible adjustments” with the social partners, to whom he also gave back control over unemployment insurance.
Revaluation of the minimum wage by 2% “from 1er November”, resumption of the agricultural bill interrupted by the dissolution, “new savings account dedicated to industry”, postponement of the provincial vote in New Caledonia, resumption of the debate on the end of life: the head of government swept wide in this imposed figure of parliamentary democracy.
To prepare his roadmap, he received union and employer forces last week and organized a government seminar to, above all, develop team spirit after several hiccups between his ministers.
The head of government spoke of respect for the rule of law as “inseparable” from the “firmness of penal policy”.
His conservative Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau had aroused numerous criticisms for his outings on the “rule of law” which is “not intangible, nor sacred”, after a standoff with his colleague from Justice Didier Migaud .