The National Assembly is today studying a bill to restore minimum sentences, a proposal by deputies Horizons, the party of Edouard Philippe. But the text has almost no chance of being adopted. Hadrien Bect’s political brief.
Division on “minimum penalties”. The Horizons deputies, and behind them, Édouard Philippe, defend Thursday, March 2 the establishment of minimum sentences against repeat offenders. But the text has almost no chance of being adopted. And yet, Horizons is the third pillar of the relative majority, with Renaissance and the Modem, 29 deputies. Yes, but here it is, the text which provides for a minimum sentence in the event of a recurrence of violence against the police in particular does not pass at all with the rest of the majority.
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Already rejected in committee last week, the president of the Renaissance group, Aurore Bergé, even invited Eric Dupont-Moretti, the Keeper of the Seals, before his troops to say all the harm he thought of this law. For her part, the rapporteur of the proposal, the deputy Naïma Moutchou could not defend her measure before the same Renaissance group. “There was no desire to discuss“, notes an elected Horizons. “This measure is useless, we are not defending that“, replies a majority executive, when another adds, a bit provocatively, “They want a right-wing marker to differentiate themselves from LR, good for them, but they will lose… unless they seek the votes of the RN“. In short, no question of making the slightest gift to the troops of Édouard Philippe.
“De-escalation or worse and worse…”
And this is obviously not only a fundamental problem. There is certainly an aspect of organization. “At Renaissance, they did not understand that we were no longer in 2017 and that they were no longer all powerful”, hears-on for example. But the problem is much deeper: Horizons is the party at the service of a future candidacy of Édouard Philippe in 2027. So, any position taken by its deputies is read – and rather rightly so – as a way for the former Prime Minister to advance his pawns. Inevitably, it tenses. “At Renaissance, they hit Édouard on the head for not having a candidate already”, criticizes a Phillipist framework.
Exchanges of courtesies therefore, but the five-year term is far from over. So much so that the bosses of the three majority parties will themselves play the peacekeepers. Stéphane Séjourné, François Bayrou and Édouard Philippe will meet next week, March 8, for a joint executive office, as indicated Le Figaro. The opportunity to stage a pretty image of a united majority. The speech of Édouard Philippe at the congress of his party, on March 24, will also be watched. A Horizons framework predicts: “There, either it will be the de-escalation, or it will be worse and worse…“