Seventeen motions filed in one year for the same result. The motion of censure defended by Nupes was rejected by the National Assembly on Monday, June 12. Voted by 239 deputies, it should have received an absolute majority, ie 289 votes out of 577 deputies, to be adopted and overthrow the government. Before the vote, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had argued for her government’s “courage” in the face of “decibels” of opposition, and defended her record as reshuffle rumors gather pace.
“True political courage is to get out of the comfort of the posture” and “to build majorities, even with those who do not think exactly like us”, pleaded the Prime Minister from the podium of the Assembly. “I don’t confuse courage and decibels,” she said, taking up the words of former head of government Bernard Cazeneuve on Saturday about Nupes. She also castigated the “inconsistencies”, “contradictions” and the “demagogy” of the oppositions.
Before the examination of this motion, tabled in the extension of the battle for pensions, the head of government had noted on France 3 on Sunday that “regularly some of the opposition leads us to demonstrate again that there is no alternative majority” .
During this interview, Ms. Borne did not deny that there could be a change of government team. “These issues are raised with the President of the Republic,” she said. She hopes to have consolidated her position at Matignon since her recourse to article 49.3 in March to have the pension reform adopted, and a motion of censure passed in the wake of nine votes for the adoption. The president of Renaissance, Stéphane Séjourné, invited parliamentarians from the majority on June 21 to discuss the “political context”, according to two sources within the party.
“You have to know how to end a dispute”
Socialist MP Valérie Rabault defended, from 4 p.m., this new motion of censure of the left alliance New People’s Ecologist and Social Union (Nupes), response to the failure, Thursday, of an attempt to repeal retirement at age 64. The bill could not be voted on in the National Assembly, which signals an “undemocratic coup”, according to the proponents of the motion.
At the podium, Valérie Rabault carried the motion on Monday by placing herself on another ground. “What is at stake today (…) is the possibility of putting an end to the discredit that the government is throwing on the National Assembly”, she judged, criticizing in a stormy atmosphere a ” duplicity” and “pressure” from the government of Elisabeth Borne during the pension crisis. “Are we still a democracy in Macronie? “Added the boss of rebellious deputies Mathilde Panot. “Your responsibility now would be to resign”, again launched to Elisabeth Borne the president of the independent group LIOT Bertrand Pancher.
The deputies of the National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, voted for censorship: “Why are you afraid of Parliament”, “afraid of the people”, asked the deputy of Var Julie Lechanteux.
But for lack of support from the right, censorship had no chance of being voted on, on this anniversary of the first round of legislative elections a year ago. “You have to know how to end a dispute”, justified Jean-Louis Thiériot, who called, like the RN, to now move on to the question of immigration.
The presidential camp had pinpointed in advance a “form of tragic repetition”. “There is no majority [pour vote la censure], they know it very well (…) it’s a game of postures, a fool’s game”, mocked on Public Sénat the deputy Renaissance Sylvain Maillard.