“Working the beam,” as former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe recommended in 2017, is a very difficult art. It is even more so for his distant successor to Matignon, François Bayrou, deprived of a majority in the National Assembly and forced to reach compromises on both sides to avoid censorship.
By seeking the favor of the left as the presentation of the budget projects and its general policy statement, scheduled for Tuesday, approaches, the latter risks allying itself with the support of a part of the “common base” who supported his predecessor. , Michel Barnier. Proof of this is the message sent by the Les Républicains party this weekend.
Two men emerged from the forest: Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate for LR, and Laurent Wauquiez, head of the party’s deputies. Both are pressing at a time when the left, excluding the LFI, negotiates step by step with the government, in particular on the pension reform, for which the socialists demand a “suspension”, their “non-censorship” status.
“Jump into the void without a parachute”
“Neither suspension nor repeal” of this law, demands the former in an interview published by Le Parisien this Saturday, warning that “participation” in the government “does not mean resignation.” “If we repeal the pension reform, the cost would be 3.4 billion euros in 2025, and almost 16 billion in 2032,” he says, based on estimates from Retirement Insurance.
The president of the PS group in the Senate, Patrick Kanner, estimated that freezing the reform for six months would cost “between 2,000 and 3,000 million euros”, which could be withdrawn from the pension reserve fund.
On Sunday, Laurent Wauquiez, whose support for the previous reform was never evident – some of his relatives had voted in favor of censorship of this text – sang the same song as Gérard Larcher, also in Le Parisien.
“I have always said that this reform could be improved, but not if that means creating even more deficit. Suspending it without an alternative scenario is like jumping into the void without a parachute. It will be without the Republican right!” he warns.
And the former head of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region jokes: “What bothers me is not arguing with the left, but ceding everything to them. I have the feeling that the government’s priority is to negotiate life insurance with the Socialist Party “. , whatever the consequences for the country. “What the PS is asking for is irresponsible.”
A good warning, although Laurent Wauquiez says that he is not “one of those who threaten a motion of censure”, denouncing “the artisans of chaos.”
“Stop catching a cold when Gérard Larcher coughs”
Determined to intervene, the right takes advantage of these interviews to reiterate its priorities. Gérard Larcher hopes “that we continue to reduce the deficit and public spending with concrete actions, in particular regarding state agencies and simplification.”
Laurent Wauquiez also calls for “creating a single social subsidy with compensation for working hours” and addressing the “residence permit for care”, which “is very expensive”, according to him.
Everyone pushes their pawns. Olivier Faure, first secretary of the PS, was on BFMTV this Sunday. The right? In the legislative elections “they came last, now they are not going to lecture everyone,” he responded. At the same time minimizing the influence of LR, which only has 47 deputies: “This means that at some point we will all stop catching a cold when Gérard Larcher coughs.”
The ball is in François Bayrou’s court, while the PS continues to believe that “the scoreboard is not there.” The ministers Éric Lombard (Economy), Amélie de Montchalin (Public Accounts) and Catherine Vautrin (Health and Labor), were received on Saturday afternoon in Matignon to present the summary of their work, after a week of intense debates in Bercy with opposition politicians. .
This Monday, the Prime Minister will receive in particular at 5:30 p.m. the presidents of the two chambers of Parliament, Gérard Larcher and Yaël Braun-Pivet. Will he make a significant gesture to the left during his general policy statement the next day? With what consequences on the “common base”? The answer is only a matter of hours.
Source: BFM TV
