France returns to uncertainty only three months after (more or less) leaving it. It was all a mirage. This Wednesday the Government ha lost the motion of censure presented in the National Assembly by the New Popular Front (NFP) and supported by the National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, as had been announced these days. Thus, Michel Barnier’s Executive It has become the shortest of the V Republic: It has not even reached one hundred days and the country is plunged back into political chaos.
Voting concluded with 331 votes in favor of the motionwithout surprises regarding what was announced by the political parties in the previous days. In addition, Barnier becomes the first leader of the Executive to fall in a motion of no confidence since George Pompidou, who did so in 1962.
The Executive, which was already approved with many doubts last summer and supported by the extreme right, has fallen after Barnier approved the Social Security Budget last Monday by decree, through article 49.3 of the Constitution, and bypassing Parliament. He had no support for a vote, even despite giving in to RN on issues such as energy or pensions. This step caused the NFP, the majority force in the Assembly, to present a motion of censure, to which it added the votes of Le Pen’s party. “I have come to live this moment, which is special and historic”Jean Luc Melénchon, leader of France Insoumise, said about the debate upon his arrival at Parliament despite not being a deputy.
Before the votes there was a heated debate between the deputies under the gaze of Barnier himself, who was the last to intervene to elevate the work of his ephemeral Government. He had to ask for “respect” in response to the boos he received at the beginning of his speech, and He noted that he has “listened, respected and dialogued” during these daysmaking “concessions” to the different political parties on issues such as “pensions, reduction of burdens, reimbursement of medications.”
On his way out, the prime minister argued that the motion “makes everything much more difficult” for the nation. “I want to invite you to weigh the consequences of this vote,” he repeated before the deputies. “Never sacrifice the future for the presentas Pierre Mendès-France said. I also recommend that, when you vote, you keep this phrase and this recommendation in mind. “We all know that the consequences go far beyond what this bill contains,” he concluded.
Never sacrifice the future for the present
From the stands, Barnier looked at Marine Le Pen. “Mrs. Le Pen, we do not have the same idea of ​​sovereignty or patriotism”he told him. The veteran leader had more criticism than applause while he spoke, in a photo that was neither more nor less than the preview of the final result. With an unsteady voice, in fact, Barnier insisted that the situation is not about one government or another, but about France “as a whole.” It was, in fact, a farewell speech. “Each one is responsible for the others. Everyone is solely responsible. “Everyone is solely responsible for everyone,” commented Barnier, for whom it has been, he said, “an honor to have served France and the French.”
The motion of censure that went ahead, the one registered by the NFP, was defended by Eric Coquerel, of Insoumise France. “Your failure was foretold, and it has been bitter,” he told the man who was still French Prime Minister at that time. “You have shown that the only commitments willing to admit were those negotiated with yourselves. Worse still, you have finally tried compromises but with the extreme right. This National Group that you have favored violates the republican barrage that was expressed last July. This commitment will not prevent your fall,” stated Coquerel.
For its part, Marine Le Penwhich supported the Executive in this short period of time, also directly pointed out Barnier’s “lack of dialogue” at all times. At that point, he accused the cabinet of being pure performance. “It’s the moment of truth,” he said from the rostrum, with the fall “of an ephemeral Government, of circumstances and appearances”with a finger also implicitly placed on the figure of President Emmanuel Macron, whom RN accuses of “not understanding the needs” of the French.
The head of the French radical right went further when it came to defending her veto of Barnier. “The policy of the worst would be not to censor such a budget, such a Government, such a collapse”he said, before making his own diagnosis: “We owe the dissolution to the deep and ancient fracture between the will of the people and the action of their leaders. “Censorship is the consequence of the blackmail of his own minority, which has prevented him from finding ways to reach the opposition, which is the very foundation of democracy,” he added, again placing emphasis on what in his view has been a null negotiating capacity of the Executive.
Despite also blaming Macron, Le Pen joins the motion of censure, but does not talk about dismissing the president, something that France Insoumise has put on the table with a small mouth. “I have too much respect for the supreme office, too much deference to our institutions to participate in any parliamentary initiative calling for impeachment“, he expressed, before adding that it is the president himself who has to decide “whether to put France or his pride first.”
This is the fall of an ephemeral Government, of circumstances and appearances
precisely since the Macronist wing reached the almost only network of Michel Barnier. His predecessor in office, Gabriel Attalput a calm tone to an at-times angry session. Of course, he regretted that the motion has arrived at a time when France “needs a stable Government” given the international situation. “The truth is that the adoption of this motion of censure only brings losers: the middle classes, those with modest means, the workers,” he developed, while recalling that citizens “ask for more action and less noise” and demand that the politicians “to be silent when we have nothing to say and to act when we have the opportunity to do so”. In this scenario, Attal considers that right now “French politics is sick.”
The amalgamation of parties sponsored by the President of the Republic accused the opposition formations of “cynicism”. Marc Fesneau has disfigured the positions of the deputies who voted in favor of the motion. “The French people have asked us to move away from political and partisan contingencies to work together on what is essential and at their service. That is the option we have taken, with the utmost rigor and loyalty. It is evident that some have preferred the easy option of cynicism and sectarianism“, he summarized: “They have chosen disorder and that weakens Parliament.”
The other support of the outgoing prime minister was his own party, The Republicans, with a minority voice in Parliament. “You intend to insult each other and you are preparing to vote together to bring down a Government“, his spokesman Laurent Wauquiez told both the left and the National Rally, whom he accused of “choosing chaos instead of stability” with the motion of censure. Other supporters of Barnier such as Charles de Courson pointed out that the motion means “aggravating the democratic crisis.”
The ‘tweezer’ of the left with the extreme right
Boris Vallaud, of the Socialist Party, disgraced Barnier that “decide to speak first to the extreme right instead of the left”. For them, there has been the great mistake of this Government, in addition to not giving priority “to the needs of the workers” when adopting the necessary economic measures. Vallaud, likewise, was very critical of Marine Le Pen for being a failed supporter of precisely this Executive. And he looked at the prime minister again: “The majority of compromise that you wanted has become in a sinister Government in collusion with the extreme right, that you are suffering and now it is destroying you.”
Cyrielle Chatelai, the president of the parliamentary group of the Ecologists, assured for her part that “Only the left has the courage necessary to carry out budgetary policy” what France needs right now. “Do you prefer to continue cutting back on the extreme right or do you want a plan for public hospitals? Would you prefer fake news or measures against the concentration of the media? Do you prefer the rule of law or community policing to be undermined?” he questioned, stating again that they know “how to build the necessary majorities” to govern. Something that Barnier has not been able to do in the short time he has been in office.
With this fall of the Government, France once again treads swampy ground. It is a return to square one in which Macron will have to look for another name that will achieve, who knows, what Michel Barnier has not achieved in less than three months: govern the country of the absence of majorities. Nobody adds up and the left is now waiting for the name they like to come out of them to the president. They are the majority force in the National Assembly, but in the Elysée pools the numbers do not seem to be going that way. Emmanuel Macron is once again pulling the agenda at its lowest moment and perhaps also the most complicated moment in the recent political history of the French country.