"No, you don't bother me, I'm writing my speech on the Prime Minister's deconfinement plan ... which I don't know yet! Laughs Annie Genevard this Monday. The situation of the deputy (LR) of Doubs, who will be one of the thirteen LR parliamentarians present at the Assembly on Tuesday, illustrates the uncomfortable position of the opposition, invited to vote on the statement by Edouard Philippe that it will find out live in the hemicycle. At the conference of presidents this morning, the majority refused to postpone the vote by 24 or 48 hours, provoking the fury of the opposition.
For the right, the part is not so obvious. The Republicans want to avoid the pitfall which would be to give a blank check to the government, or to appear as opponents of deconfinement to which they are, in principle, very favorable. This is why the group made public its own deconfinement plan as early as last weekend.
At the group meeting on Monday, no final position could be reached. "It must be said that with our audio conference system, when one person speaks, the others are forced to listen without intervening! Smiles a participant. "The government's method makes it tense in the group," we recognize in the entourage of the group's president, Damien Abad.
"The government takes us seriously for idiots"
"I think there will be quite a few votes against the Prime Minister's plan," said Aurélien Pradié, deputy for Lot and secretary general of LR. Party number 3 is reluctant to take the plunge. "The government takes us seriously for idiots and the French with it," he fumes. We have been witnessing this weekend a change of atmosphere with a government that sits on the parliamentary mechanism. The national consensus bursts and the executive, which has eyes only for the high administration and for itself, bears the responsibility! "
"We must not lose our coherence and our line when we had managed to embody a force of proposals," tempers Damien Abad who leaned this Monday evening with the president of LR, Christian Jacob, for an abstention. "Either the containment plan is precise and we vote on a text that we can amend, or it is a general declaration and it is of little interest", explains the party boss who says however "full of good will ”. LR also refused to co-sign a letter of protest, sent to the Prime Minister and signed by five other group presidents, including the centrist Jean-Christophe Lagarde and the Insubmissive Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while saying "join in approach ".
Even if Damien Abad has "a lot of criticism of the government's method", he thinks that the bottom of the plan remains the most important element in defining a group position. "We are still going to measure the gap between the government's plan and the one we have proposed," he said. Exchanges between LR leaders will continue this Tuesday morning, based in particular on possible press information. "If we have to rely on leaks in the press ..." sighs Annie Genevard, before diving back into the text of her speech.