“The truth is that you want Charles de Courson Prime Minister, Marine Le Pen at Bercy and Mathilde Panot inside”. Brandishing a Constitution in her left hand, the leader of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, castigated Monday, from the platform, all the opposition groups. “The future is what we all have to worry about from tonight,” she added. With 9 votes, the motion of censure on the pension reform was rejected. Just like that defended by the National Rally. The social security amending finance bill is adopted, pending the opinion of the Constitutional Council.
The day started badly for Elisabeth Borne. In chorus, three influential Republican deputies appeared on TV sets on Monday, March 20 in the morning: Pierre-Henri Dumont on CNews, Maxime Minot on France 2 and Aurélien Pradié on Europe 1. “, justified the latter. Opportunistic, the three members of the party came to announce that they would vote for the motion of censure. Denouncing more the use of 49.3 than the substance of the reform, the right-wing elected officials took the opportunity to accentuate the already glaring divisions within the party.
Consequences: 19 LR deputies voted for the motion of censure out of the 61 members. Among a few unnamed names: Julien Dive, candidate for the presidency of the group last June, Raphaël Schellenberger or even Fabien Di Filippo. At the Luxembourg Palace, the situation is different. Only 6 senators among the 145 majority representatives voted against the text last Thursday.
It is better to be proactive than defensive. Out of eleven minutes of speaking time, the patron saint of majority deputies attacked the opposition for nearly nine minutes. Barely defending reform. “Your ultimate angst is that a dissolution exists,” she said before adding. “The National Rally gesticulates but does not speak”, accusing the signatories of preparing early legislative elections in advance. “A motion of no confidence becomes a de facto common program,” she said.
Last to speak, Elisabeth Borne did not take the same path. A few minutes before the vote on the motion, the Prime Minister preferred to denounce the two extremes rather than the Republicans. The Nupes is ready for “all compromises”, even those of signing with a deputy who was “against marriage for all”, addressed the head of government to deputies leaving the Hemicycle. “We have anti-parliamentarianism at work in all its forms…with MPs claiming the street has more legitimacy,” she added.
For her part, Marine Le Pen, sitting without flinching, gave way to her spokesperson Laure Lavalette. “Chiche Monsieur Macron at the dissolution”, dared the latter, adding to the majority “after you, it will be us”. Stopping her speech only when the deputies of the National Rally applauded her, the deputy of Var, eyes riveted on the right of the Hemicycle, prefigured a future program of the party. “Let’s institute a full tax share from the second child!” she proclaims. On the left, Mathilde Panot directly castigated the President of the Republic, a “man who uses unlimited power”.
The opposition now has only two recourses: mobilization in the street and legal referral. The Elders of the Constitutional Council could pull the rug out from under the government by invalidating the pension reform. For good reason, the strategy used. The executive has chosen to go through a finance bill, imposing certain measures possibly unforeseen by this process. In legalese, they are budget jumpers. In other words, legislative provisions unsuited to finance bills. If the motion of censure was rejected by a few votes, the Constitutional Council could strike the fatal blow. And the government will soon go it alone…