The president of the RN group in the National Assembly wants to bring down the government of Elisabeth Borne in the midst of a debate on pension reform.
Marine Le Pen announced on Wednesday February 15 that she had filed a motion of censure with her group Rassemblement national (RN) “so that the opposing deputies” pension reform “can express their rejection of this text”evoking a “parliamentary referendum” against the government of Elisabeth Borne. While the debates must end Friday evening, at midnight, “it is clear that no vote will be possible on article 7” raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, “and even less on the whole bill”continued the far-right leader during a press conference organized at the end of the afternoon.
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“The few days of discussions in the hemicycle have shown that in reality, the major measure of the text was indeed the raising of the starting age to 64 years and that the rest of the measures were artifices in no way capable of compensating for the brutality, injustice and anti-social character of this reform”, writes Marine Le Pen in the text of the motion of censure. The leader of the RN at the Palais-Bourbon considers that“it would therefore be undemocratic if the representatives of the nation could not express themselves on this reform”.
A vote between Friday afternoon and Wednesday
Defined in article 49-2 of the Constitution, the spontaneous motion of censure diverges from the induced motion of censure, defined in article 49-3, which we have heard a lot about in recent months. She “results from the sole initiative of the deputies”specifies the site vie-publique.fr, while the motion of censure caused is generated by the decision of the government to engage its responsibility on a particular text.
The motion presented by Marine Le Pen will have to be debated and put to the vote within a period of between 48 hours after its tabling – i.e. Friday, 5.55 p.m. – and three sitting days later, i.e. Wednesday, February 22. “The date of the discussion [sur la motion de censure du RN] will be determined by the Conference of Presidents”announced Wednesday Caroline Fiat, vice-president of the National Assembly.
Very uncertain outcome for this motion of censure
To be adopted and bring down the government, “the motion of censure can only be adopted by a majority of the members composing the Assembly”, i.e. 289 deputies. It therefore has little chance of succeeding, because the Republican deputies officially support the reform and increase the number of opponents to the text under 289, in theory.
Moreover, the left-wing opposition has several times refused to sign the motions of censure tabled by the National Rally since the start of the legislature last June. By once again refusing to vote for the motion of censure of the RN, the Nupes would mechanically defeat this one.