Without an absolute majority, the government was forced to negotiate to have its reforms adopted in the National Assembly. Franceinfo reviewed 14 emblematic votes from the first year of the legislature.
At the Palais-Bourbon, opposition makes and breaks the law. The 2022 legislative elections have reshuffled the cards. With only 251 deputies elected, the presidential camp (Renaissance and its allies Horizons and MoDem) only has a relative majority. Far from the 289 seats needed to govern alone, he faces opponents who total 326 votes.
To get its bills voted on in the National Assembly, the government must count on the support of some of the opposition, or be content with their abstention. A two-band billiard game that the political groups have learned to handle during this unprecedented start to the legislature.
Franceinfo has isolated the results of the 14 so-called “solemn” ballots, which have concerned bills as a whole since the start of the legislature (the list is at the end of the article). This category of votes is reserved for the most important texts of the government. Organized so that all MEPs can participate, these votes constitute a reliable sample for comparing the positions of different groups, but also between several MEPs within the same entity.
LR deputies, allies of circumstance
The Republicans are at the top of the opposition groups that support the government’s texts the most. Right-wing MPs have often negotiated their vote, as in July 2022 when a compromise on prices at the pump was found with the Minister of the Economy. The LRs also mostly rallied to the government’s unemployment insurance reform last fall. More recently, they almost unanimously voted, at the beginning of June, the military programming law, or even the nuclear recovery plan in France, adopted on May 16 in the last reading.
But LR deputies do not show the same degree of support for government texts. Thus, the president of the group Olivier Marleix voted in favor at 71% of the votes. The party’s president, Eric Ciotti, for his part, withdrew more than half of these votes: he therefore approved the government’s policy only four times out of 14 (a little less than 30%) and did not vote. only explicitly opposed it in 7% of cases. In the same situation, Aurélien Pradié, fierce opponent of the pension reform, voted “for” a government text only once during a solemn ballot, and above all chose not to take part in the ballot in most of the cases (86%).
The votes of the deputies of the group Les Républicains on government bills
Source: National Assembly
A very accommodating Liot group despite appearances
Sheltered from microphones and cameras, the votes of deputies also reveal more discreet alliances. This is the case for the free electrons of the small group Freedom, independent, overseas and territories (Liot).
This heterogeneous grouping of defectors from the right, left and overseas elected officials has become the spearhead of opposition to the government on pension reform. However, on the whole, the deputies of Liot are those who opposed the policy of the government the least. Some have votes very favorable to government policy, such as the former socialist Jean-Louis Bricout (71% of votes for). Others prefer to abstain, such as the Corsican elected official Michel Castellani (57% abstention).
The votes of the deputies of the Liot group on the government bills
Source: National Assembly
The RN, an opposition with two faces
Far from being confined to a strict opposition, the National Rally has also supported the government on several occasions. The group chaired by Marine Le Pen voted for the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior. RN deputies also joined the executive for the exceptional measures in favor of purchasing power, the nuclear recovery plan, or even the military programming law.
On the other hand, RN deputies participated, with the left, in the defeat of the public finance programming bill which aimed to bring the public deficit below the 3% mark of gross domestic product (GDP) by to 2027. They also opposed unemployment reform.
This double game is verified in the votes of most members of the RN group. Deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy totals 57% of votes for and 29% of votes against. Marine Le Pen, for her part, voted in favor in 43% of the ballots and she voted against in 21% of cases.
The votes of the deputies of the Rassemblement national group on government bills
Source: National Assembly
On the left, the oppositions with variable geometry of the Nupes
At the other end of the chessboard, the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) is divided. On the one hand, the “rebellious” and environmentalists systematically vote against government policy. On the other hand, the Socialists have shown themselves to be more inclined to abstain, for example on the text on the organization of the Olympic Games, which includes an important security component.
Thus, while some socialist deputies like Christine Pires Beaune and Gérard Leseul were fervent abstainers (57%), others, like David Guiraud (LFI), voted against the government in all the elections. The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, for his part voted as much in favor of the “solemn” bills as against (7% each time), choosing most of the time not to take part in the vote (71%).
These differences crystallized in the spring, on the occasion of the vote on the bill on the revival of nuclear power. The “rebellious” and the ecologists voted against, the socialists abstained and the communists voted for.
The votes of the deputies of the Nupes groups on the government bills
Source: National Assembly
Methodology
Only the votes of opposition deputies, in office on the occasion of all the elections, were analysed. The votes of seven parliamentarians or former parliamentarians were therefore rejected: Martine Froger (Liot), René Pilato (LFI), Bénédicte Taurine (LFI), Anne-Sophie Frigout (RN), Meyer Habib (LR), Bertrand Petit (SOC ) and Karim Ben Cheikh (ecologists).
List of the 14 solemn ballots having concerned a bill as a whole, in the National Assembly, since the beginning of the legislature:
- – Bill on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power (1st reading), July 21, 2022 (results)
- – Amending finance bill for 2022 (1st reading), July 26, 2022 (results)
- – Bill on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power (last reading), August 3, 2022 (results)
- – Amending finance bill for 2022 (last reading), August 4, 2022 (results)
- – Bill on emergency measures relating to the functioning of the labor market with a view to full employment (1st reading), October 11, 2022 (results)
- – Public finance programming bill for the years 2023 to 2027 (1st reading), October 25, 2022 (results)
- – Amending finance bill for 2022 (1st reading), November 8, 2022 (results)
- – Orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (1st reading), November 22, 2022 (results)
- – Orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (last reading), December 7, 2022 (results)
- – Bill relating to the acceleration of the production of renewable energies (1st reading), January 10, 2023 (results)
- – Bill on the acceleration of procedures related to the construction of new nuclear facilities (1st reading), March 21, 2023 (results)
- – 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bill (1st Reading), March 28, 2023 (results)
- – Bill on the acceleration of procedures related to the construction of new nuclear facilities (last reading), May 16, 2023 (results)
- – Bill relating to military programming for the years 2024 to 2030 and containing various provisions relating to defense (first reading), June 7, 2023 (results)