The National Assembly gets to the heart of the matter. A week after the appointment of the new government of Elisabeth Borne and three weeks after the second round of the legislative elections, the day promises to be busy in the Hemicycle: before the examination of a first text of law, on the health situation, the deputies will have to decide, Monday, July 11, on the motion of censure of the left against the executive.
>> Motion of censure: follow all the news and reactions live from the National Assembly
The text of the Nupes parliamentary intergroup is discussed from 4 p.m. What’s in it? Who is going to support him? What is the point of drawing this weapon provided for by the Constitution? Franceinfo reviews six questions on the subject.
Why was this motion of censure tabled?
The text was tabled on July 6, after Elisabeth Borne’s general policy speech. Carried by elected officials Mathilde Panot, Boris Vallaud, Julien Bayou, Cyrielle Chatelain and André Chassaigne, it is signed by 150 deputies from Nupes (LFI, PS, ecologists, PCF). Filed under article 49 of the Constitution, this motion criticizes the decision of Elisabeth Borne for not having asked for a vote of confidence last Wednesday during his declaration of general policy.
“Contrary to the republican tradition applied for decades, and to the uninterrupted practice for 30 years, the Prime Minister did not wish, in application of article 49-1 of the Constitution, to engage the responsibility of the Government on this declaration “reads the text of the motion.
“In the absence of a vote of confidence, the choice is made to break the current institutional balance of the Prime Minister, obviously chosen by the President of the Republic but whose legitimacy also comes from Parliament through this vote of confidence”continue its authors, considering “that it is essential to maintain whenever possible the possibility for parliamentarians to express themselves through a vote”.
How will the vote go?
The text will first be debated. The speaker from the LFI-Nupes group will speak first, before the intervention of the Prime Minister. The left could, on this occasion, echo the revelations of Radio France and the World on the privileged links between Emmanuel Macron when he was Minister of the Economy, and the company Uber. For the leader of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, it is “a looting of the country”.
Speakers from the other groups will then speak in turn. The debate should last approximately 2h30. The ballot, organized in the rooms adjoining the Hemicycle, will then be opened at the end of the debate for 30 minutes. Only MPs in favor of the motion will participate.
Who is about to vote for?
Difficult to know if the 150 signatory deputies will vote in favor of the motion. It is not sure that they are all present and some had expressed their hesitations, like the socialist Valérie Rabault. “A motion of censure is only of interest if it is voted and if it is not, that means that we are in favor, in a way, of the government which would emerge from this sequence”dreaded the deputy of Tarn-et-Garonne on franceinfo.
The Nupes brings together 151 elected officials but one deputy did not sign the text of the motion, the socialist Dominique Potier. The votes of other Members may be added to this motion if they do not follow the instructions of their respective groups.
Who opposes it?
Besides the 245 deputies of the majority Together! (the Modem, Horizons and Renaissance alliance, ex-LREM), lhe groups RN (89 deputies) and LR (62) have already made it known that they do not plan to vote on the motion. The majority of the 16 deputies of the Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories (Liot) group will not vote for it either. “We will judge the government on its actions and it just doesn’t make sense at the moment.” let it be known in the Sunday newspaper Bertrand Pancher.
As for Marine Le Pen, she reiterated on Sunday that her RN group, in the midst of a quest for respectability, did not support the motion: “La Nupes does not defend the interests of the French, what they want is to blow up the Republic.”
Is she likely to be adopted?
To bring down the government, an absolute majority of 289 votes is needed. It therefore lacks more than 130 votes to the Nupes to reach the threshold necessary for the approval of their motion. What seems very unlikely for lack of a rallying of the oppositions, especially since abstentions are counted as refusals of the motion, therefore as support for the government.
Since 1958, only one motion of censure has been adopted: the government of Georges Pompidou was forced to resign in 1962.
What is Nupes’ strategy with this text?
Despite the virtual certainty that it will not be adopted, Mathilde Panot hopes to make this motion a demonstration of “distrust” with regard to Elisabeth Borne, who does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly. Por the communist deputy Pierre Dharréville, it’s about first of a political symbol: “The opposite of trust is distrust. We wanted to table this motion because we believe that it is not possible for the government not to come and ask for trust”he explained on franceinfo.
The objective is also, for the Nupes, to establish its position as the first opposition group and to show the lines of force within the Assembly. “All cumulative opposition was in the majority, so it could very well have been done for the motion of censure. Except that, and this is one of the lessons of the moment, neither Les Républicains nor the National Rally wish to oppose until then on Madame Borne’s program”, observed on franceinfo the LDI deputy and chairman of the Finance Committee, Eric Coquerel.