Emmanuel Macron meets on Friday November 17 with the party leaders who were present for the second meetings in Saint-Denis. As on August 30, this very Macronist exercise intended to “create consensus” in a fractured country will be held at the House of Education of the Legion of Honor, a stone’s throw from the basilica where the kings of France rest, in gates of Paris. The meeting takes place at 9:15 a.m., with the situation in Gaza and Ukraine, the extension of the referendum to social issues, decentralization and possible constitutional reforms on the status of Corsica and New Caledonia on the menu. .
The present and the absent
If all the party leaders had made the trip on August 30 – and for a meeting at the Elysée after the Hamas attack on Israel – only Marine Tondelier (EELV), Fabien Roussel (Communist Party), Jordan Bardella (National Rally ), Hervé Marseille (UDI) and Guillaume Lacroix (PRG) agreed to honor the presidential appointment. The Head of State will also be able to count on his allies, Stéphane Séjourné (Renaissance), François Bayrou (MoDem), Edouard Philippe (Horizons), Laurent Hénart (Radical Party).
The others – Eric Ciotti (Les Républicains), Olivier Faure (Socialist Party) and Manuel Bompard (La France insoumise) – this time opted for the empty chair policy. Oliver Faure, who refuses to support a possible referendum on immigration, denounces “a staging”; Manuel Bompard, “a monarchical exercise” aimed at bypassing Parliament.
In an open letter of which Agence France-Presse obtained a copy, Eric Ciotti – who had deplored the absence of the head of state at the march against anti-Semitism – accuses Emmanuel Macron of “feeding” the democratic crisis by “ multiplying” initiatives outside institutions. “You are the President of the French Republic and you must respect its institutions,” writes the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes, whose absence in Saint-Denis was described by the head of state as “a political mistake.” .
The Republicans will nevertheless be represented by a major player, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, invited along with the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
“Major political mistake”, according to Macron
These withdrawals aroused the ire of Emmanuel Macron, who denounced on Wednesday, from Switzerland where he is traveling, the “major political mistake” of the three absentees and refused the debate on his absence from the march. If the accumulation of withdrawals weighs down the presidential exercise, the Head of State will make a point of demonstrating that it remains more relevant than ever.
Mr. Macron must in particular propose to facilitate the organization of the shared initiative referendum (RIP), provided that it does not relate to a text debated in Parliament. The new meeting in Saint-Denis must show that the requests of the political parties have “been heard” and that “a follow-up has been given to them”, explains government spokesperson Olivier Véran.
The first meeting led to a social conference on low wages and a debate in Parliament on the international situation. Too little, Jordan Bardella lamented Thursday in a letter to Mr. Macron, affirming that “these endless exercises mask presidential inertia less and less.” With those who will be present on Friday, “we can agree on the fact that democracy is worn out, contested” and on the means to “repair the link” with the French, assures Renaissance spokesperson Loïc Signor.
