It is a disavowal which will leave traces in the majority: the Horizons deputies, and behind them Edouard Philippe, defended in vain Thursday minimum sentences against repeat offenders, rejected by their Macronist allies.
Denouncing “manoeuvres” and a “mess”, the Horizons group ended up withdrawing its bill to fight against recidivism, after being beaten in the hemicycle on its flagship measure.
Their Renaissance and MoDem allies saw in the text a return to the “minimum penalties” dear to Nicolas Sarkozy.
“I was ready to fight, argument against argument, conviction against conviction. I was less ready for twisted blows”, dropped the author of the text, Naïma Moutchou, before the National Assembly. “There will be a before and an after”, reacted on Twitter his colleague Horizons Frédéric Valletoux.
The debates, which lasted all morning, gave rise to long interventions by the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, fiercely opposed to the text, as well as other speakers.
Elected officials on the left and on the right have pointed to a form of “obstruction”.
The key article, which provided for a minimum sentence of one year’s imprisonment for repeated violent offenses against public officials, was rejected by 98 votes against 87. Visibly angry, Ms. Moutchou then announced the withdrawal of the entire text, which was to combine deterrence and prevention.
It was examined at the opening of a Horizons “niche”, a day dedicated to the proposals of the young group of 29 deputies.
“This is the first of our political family and we have always wanted to be on concrete, substantive subjects”, according to the president of the group Laurent Marcangeli, former mayor of Ajaccio.
Security and justice correspond to the “political DNA” of Horizons, on the right wing of the majority, in line with the party founded in the fall of 2021 by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.
This day, we say to the group, “it is also its image”, that of a political heavyweight which traces its route and could well apply for the Elysée in 2027.
Ms. Moutchou criticized an “ideological blocking” of the partners of the presidential camp, while “the phenomenon of recidivism is progressing each year, our police forces are targets”.
“Firefighters, health personnel, teachers and bus drivers” also become “victims of the questioning of authority”. The figures were however disputed in the hemicycle.
“I regret this attitude of denial” of the macronists and “it is a fight that we will continue to lead”, then declared to the press Mr. Marcangeli, deploring “a vote which unfortunately goes against the interest of the French” and “of those who serve the Nation every day”.
But for Mr. Dupond-Moretti, it was nothing and a minimum of one year. “I am a pragmatist, not a dogmatist”, but that is not “useful”, he hammered, after the experience of minimum sentences under Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms. Moutchou denied that it was a question of returning to the broad system in force from 2007 to 2014.
The left also opposed the bill, perceived as “prison populism” in a “return to the 19th century”.
On the other hand, right and RN supported a text going “in the good direction”, and even sought to harden it or to return to the broad Sarkozy-Dati field.
These deputies were pleased to note the “burst” of the majority on the subject. “The line of Horizons is an abstract line that we never reach,” quipped Timothée Houssin on the far right.
The president of the Renaissance group Aurore Bergé says “assume” that there may be “disagreements in the majority”, as long as the three partners find themselves on the essentials, such as on the inflammable file of pensions.
Still, behind the scenes, the Renaissance deputies are regularly accused by their allies of “always behaving like a group of absolute majority”.
“We know how to make allowances”, put Laurent Marcangeli into perspective after the “failure” of the morning.
The other Horizons bills on the menu Thursday were less controversial.
The National Assembly thus voted in agreement the obligation for social networks to verify the age of their users and the agreement of parents for the registration of children under 15 years old.
At the end of the evening, the deputies unanimously adopted a text on support for families of sick children, to which was added an extension of leave for the death of a child.
03/03/2023 00:25:54 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
