It is another kind of epidemic which agitated the minds this Tuesday morning in the closed-door of the traditional breakfast of the majority in Matignon: not the coronavirus, but the departures from the chain of macronist deputies, out of ban. Around the table, the leaders of La République en Marche and the MoDem stung a good deal of anger at these elected slingers, from the center-left, who threaten to form a dissident group. The danger? To make LREM lose the absolute majority of 289 deputies that it alone holds in the hemicycle.
Since the episode of 49-3, drawn by the executive to have its pension reform adopted without a vote in the face of opposition guerrillas, departures from the LREM group have multiplied. To the point that a number of elected officials of the majority deem "inevitable" the constitution of a ninth group in the Assembly, around the deputies Matthieu Orphelin, Jean-François Cesarini or Cédric Villani, disappointed with macronism. Fifteen elected officials are enough to constitute a group at Palais-Bourbon.
“It is inevitable. The question is how do we manage, ”says a person in charge of the majority. Some nightmares even think that these strong heads merge with the twenty-one elected members of the group Libertés et Territoires, where sit pell-mell deputies from the center like ex-MoDem Jean Lassalle, radicals on the left, Corsican nationalists or LREM alumni.
"They want to lead us with our wands"
Gathered around Edouard Philippe for breakfast in Matignon this Tuesday morning, the tenors of the majority let out their very lively annoyance, worried that they might have to deal with these turbulent dissidents tomorrow to have texts adopted in Parliament. "They want to lead us with the rod, with dictatorial methods! They imagine that they will blackmail us by giving us their instructions every Sunday evening, to have arbitrations on Tuesday morning at the breakfast of the majority! "Stormed Stanislas Guerini, the boss of LREM, according to several participants.
Head of the deputies of MoDem, who intend to remain the privileged ally of LREM, Patrick Mignola did not go there with the back of the spoon. "They think that the idiots are the ones who stay and who raise their arms (Editor's note: to vote on the texts of the law) . But the idiots are the ones who leave! The day we speak of center-left or center-right, there is no longer a center. I don't see why they would have a seat on Tuesday for breakfast, we don't need them. I don't want to come to Matignon to attend the negotiations of the LREM sub-currents! He thundered. And to add, according to several witnesses of the meeting, bantering: "Thirteen at the table is too much. Especially since the thirteenth is often the traitor! "
"They don't want to hear anything"
A point of view totally shared by Edouard Philippe, who fears the multiplication of parallel groups which would crack the majority so far bloated of the executive. "A ninth group can predispose to a tenth (Editor's note: center-right), and why not an eleventh! ", Warned the Prime Minister before the table.
Arrested, the boss of the LREM group, Gilles Le Gendre, appeared resigned. If he explained that he had met each of the slingers individually, he did not succeed at this point in bringing them to their senses: "They don't want to hear anything, they seem determined".
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There remains one last hope for the LREM and MoDem officials, who are working behind the scenes on the possible constitution of a majority liaison committee for the post-municipal elections. "They have an organizational problem," says one of them. Who will be their leader? When you have a horse, you only need one rider, but there are four or five between Orphan, Cesarini, Barbara Pompili or Villani ”.