Paris, France | AFP | Tuesday 03/09/2024 – Every day brings its share of twists and turns: after the Bernard Cazeneuve and then Thierry Beaudet options, Emmanuel Macron tested the Xavier Bertrand option for Matignon again on Tuesday, provoking an outcry from the RN to LFI, with threats of censorship in support.
“It would be a lack of respect towards the millions of French people who voted (…) So we are censoring,” said the far-right party, which has a political and personal dispute with the president of the Hauts-de-France region.
Xavier Bertrand, who often boasts of having beaten Marine Le Pen twice in the regional elections, “is outrageous and insulting towards the RN”, added those close to the party to support the refusal of a possible nomination of the Republicans’ leader to Matignon.
In the process, RN ally Eric Ciotti made it known that his deputies would also “obviously censure” a Bertrand government.
On the left too, the spokesman for the Communist Party, Léon Deffontaines, stated that “Xavier Bertrand will be censored” if he is appointed Prime Minister. And the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot “reconfirmed the filing of an immediate motion of censure” against any government that would not come from the New Popular Front and led by the candidate of the left alliance Lucie Castets.
The refusal front extends to the right wing of the Socialist Party. Bertrand at Matignon? “We cannot accept this,” said the first delegated secretary of the PS, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
Enough to weaken the hypothesis discussed Tuesday morning between Mr. Macron and the leaders of the right Gérard Larcher, Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau, who nevertheless agreed to abandon the “neither coalition nor participation” line harshly criticized by the former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Position then “debriefed” by Mr. Wauquiez in front of his deputies from the Republican Right group, who validated this strategy “to show (their) good will” while “noting that the risk of censorship probably did not make the option viable”, according to a participant.
– Tests and blackmail –
At the Elysée, these interviews were confirmed, adding that the President of the Republic continues “to test the hypotheses of Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve”, after having received them in turn on Monday.
The presidency specifies that new discussions with “other political groups and parties” are planned for the day.
Socialists Olivier Faure and Boris Vallaud had an appointment at 4:00 p.m. with the head of state, before the holding of a national PS office. The body could vote on a crucial question: would a cohabitation government led by Bernard Cazeneuve, based on the New Popular Front program, be censored by PS deputies?
A section of the socialist cadres opposed to the First Secretary are calling for support for the former Prime Minister. Is this an opening in sight as the political crisis has lasted for almost two months?
“The wait has gone on long enough,” the Liot group exasperated in a press release, demanding the “urgent” appointment of a “Prime Minister with proven political experience.”
A description that could correspond to the profile of Bernard Cazeneuve, in pole position since Mr. Macron swept aside the Lucie Castets option last week. Especially since the ex-socialist has the double advantage of not being rejected on the right and of dividing on the left.
But the last word could go to the RN, which considers it “impossible” to let back the man who was “François Hollande’s last Prime Minister”. On the other hand, the party with the flame “would accept a technical government, which would deal with current affairs” and would have the mandate “to implement proportional representation in the legislative elections” in order “to achieve a majority in a year”, a new dissolution not being possible before the summer of 2025.
– Beaudet optional –
Conditions likely to revive the search for a personality from civil society. A third name emerged on Monday: that of Thierry Beaudet, the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), unknown to the general public and with a rather left-leaning sensibility.
Received on Thursday and Sunday at the Elysée, this trained teacher, who made his career in the mutualist sector and who supervised the Citizens’ Convention on the end of life, did not, however, arouse much enthusiasm within the political class.
So many parameters which complicate the choice of a new head of government, while Gabriel Attal and his resigning team have been dealing with current affairs for seven weeks.
Time is running out, however. The 2025 budget must be submitted to Parliament by October 1 at the latest. And the Ministry of Finance has just announced a new deficit slippage, expected at 5.6% of GDP this year without new savings measures.
