With the appointment of one of their own as Prime Minister, the LR are preparing to return to government, twelve years after the end of Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term. This return to power with Michel Barnier is a paradox for a party that now only has 47 deputies in the National Assembly.
He did not fail to point out the incongruity of the situation, under the laughing eye of Marine Le Pen. “The party that won 6% in the last legislative elections has in a way won the lottery and has been tasked with forming the new French government.“, lambasted Jordan Bardella, Saturday September 14, during the parliamentary return of the National Rally to the assembly. In the sights of the president of the RN: The Republicans.
With the appointment of one of their own, Michel Barnier, as Prime Minister, the right-wing party is preparing to return to power, twelve years after the end of Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term. A return to power that is barely believable for a party crushed by electoral defeats and in particular the starving score of 4.78% for Valérie Pécresse in the 2022 presidential election.
The Republicans were able to take advantage of the political disorder that set in after the early legislative elections, with this National Assembly fractured into three blocs, while they themselves only have 47 elected members. Initially refusing any government coalition, they quickly changed their tune with the appointment by Emmanuel Macron of the former chief Brexit negotiator.
The New Popular Front has promised Michel Barnier a motion of no confidence. The National Rally, for its part, is leaving the new Prime Minister with the “benefit of the doubt”pushing aside “a priori censorship”but not excluding it “in the coming months”. Jordan Bardella therefore maintains Michel Barnier “under surveillance”. The Macronists, themselves, “know that a break is needed and that there can be no continuity with the seven years that have just passed”analyzes political scientist Benjamin Morel. In this context, Les Républicains “have managed to take the leadership”They have a major advantage: “trained and well-known political personnel who know the State”. For this specialist of the Constitution, “It’s the revenge of professional politicians”.
However, this was not the plan imagined by the LR leaders at the beginning of the summer. On July 10, Laurent Wauquiez, who had just been elected president of the LR group in the assembly, renamed La Droite républicaine, appeared before the press. The right was then in a weak position and was emerging from a psychodrama of which it alone had the secret: its boss, Eric Ciotti, had secretly plotted an electoral alliance with the RN, attracting the wrath of all the party’s bigwigs. While the group had 61 deputies before the dissolution, there were only 47 left sitting in the new version. “We will not participate in government coalitions”announces Laurent Wauquiez straight away, preferring to put on the table A “legislative pact” with “proposed laws” for the “revaluation of working France”.
The then president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council also warned that his group would oppose any government from the New Popular Front. Because the coalition of left-wing parties, which came out on top in the legislative elections, was meeting at the same time to try to present a profile to Matignon. It would be that of Lucie Castets, appointed about ten days later, but who would be rejected from the outset by Emmanuel Macron. To justify this rejection, the President of the Republic relied in particular on the failure of the NFP candidate, the communist André Chassaigne, to the presidency of the National Assembly.
Even though LR does not want to hear about a coalition with Macron’s party, the right and the presidential party nevertheless agree to prevent the left from taking the rostrum on July 18. Macronist MP Yaël Braun-Pivet retains the presidency of the National Assembly thanks in particular to the withdrawal of LR candidate Philippe Juvin. The agreement is not, however, openly assumed by LR. “It is not a question of a deal, but of the functioning of the assembly, we want to avoid any institutional blockage”then pleads Anne-Laure Blin, spokesperson for the LR group. Two days later, LR won, notably thanks to the votes of the Macronists, two vice-presidencies in the assembly. The Olympic truce is looming and the right is sticking to its legislative pact, presented in detail on July 22.
Emmanuel Macron has, for his part, given the political parties an appointment in mid-August to move forward on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. In reality, it will be necessary to wait three more weeks before seeing Gabriel Attal’s successor designated. A period which, according to Laurent Wauquiez’s entourage, has given the head of the LR group food for thought: “What explains this evolution of Laurent Wauquiez is the situation in the country and the weariness of the French. We have very clear feedback from the field on this.”
From the moment the head of state appoints Michel Barnier to Matignon, everything changes on the right and for the candidate for 2027. “Laurent Wauquiez is more than a move, it’s a triple backflip”mocks a right-wing parliamentarian. In the ranks of elected officials, since the nomination of Michel Barnier, known on September 5, the evolution is also spectacular. “We were in a deadlock situation with a president who was procrastinating. At a certain point, it was supply-side politics.”assures LR MP Antoine Vermorel-Marques.
“It would be funny if we refused to participate from the moment Emmanuel Macron appoints someone from our ranks.”
Antoine Vermorel-Marques, LR MPto franceinfo
“We will support him, it is obvious that some of us will be in government and that will be our way of weighing in”rejoiced an LR MP, the day after Michel Barnier’s appointment. A week later, the right confirmed its participation in the next government, during its parliamentary days in Aix-les-Bains (Savoie). “The appointment of Michel Barnier is excellent news”rejoices Laurent Wauquiez.The decision we have taken is to commit to his side, and he will have the very clear support of all our parliamentarians.”he adds. “It’s a real turnaround in strategy. We’re moving from a strategy of opposition, where we play it on the outside, while waiting for Macronism to die, to a strategy of entryism.”analyzes Benjamin Morel.
From then on, LR’s appetite is rekindled with the future distribution of ministerial portfolios. It seems a long time ago when, in 2017, LR excluded Edouard Philippe, Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin or Sébastien Lecornu after their entry into a Macronist government. According to concordant sources, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former party is demanding a quarter to a third of the ministerial portfolios, including one or two sovereign ministries. Michel Barnier himself said on September 12 that his future government would certainly be “balanced, representative, plural”but also “naturally [avec] his political family”.
In Macron’s party, there are several who view the ambitions of the right with a very negative eye. MoDem executives are bringing out the big guns by destroying LR’s demands.“They do not have the means for the policy they want. If the French had wanted a right-wing policy, they would have elected 289 LR deputies.”lashes out Marc Fesneau, the leader of the centrist deputies, in The TribuneSeptember 15. An executive with a strong LR dominance “would have no chance of success”also warned about BFMTV the same day François Bayrou, the party leader.
Within Renaissance, too, some are gnashing their teeth. “What saddens me the most is that after having put the left back in the saddle with the NFP, we put the right back in the saddle. The left has reconstituted itself against us and the LR, with 40 deputies, we have the impression that they have won the elections”worries an influential Macronist MP, met during the parliamentary days of the presidential party, on September 10.
“The risk with Barnier is that he pulls too much to the right. We must gently remind him that it was not LR who won the elections.”
A Renaissance MPto franceinfo
On Tuesday, September 17, the president of the Renaissance group, Gabriel Attal, wrote in a message to his troops that he was requesting a new meeting with the Prime Minister and that “in order to see more clearly” concerning the participation of the Macronists in the government. The former tenant of Matignon questions himself on the future political line but also on “the major governmental balances”.
Criticisms that the right assures it does not ignore. “We are aware of our political weight, where we come from and the path that remains to be taken to regain power.”assures LR MP Antoine Vermorel-Marques. “We did not win the legislative elections and we only have 47 deputies. But with the Senate, we are the leading political force in the country. Not to mention all our local elected officials”, nevertheless claimed the spokesperson for the LR group in the Assembly, Vincent Jeanbrun, on Sud Radio, on September 16.
“They can talk about the Senate as much as they want, but there is no censorship in the Senate.retorts Renaissance MP Ludovic Mendes. The leader of the right-wing senators had still brandished the threat of censure of the government in April, to protest against the deterioration of public finances and the government’s economic policy. “I agree that Barnier was put at the head of this government, but there is no bigger minority than the LR at the moment”insists Ludovic Mendes. “What matters most is not the positions but to push through our legislative pact as much as possible and to gain credibility in these crises”, tempers LR MP Fabien Di Filippo. The influence and weight of the LR in the composition of the government will nevertheless be carefully scrutinized.