"He has the calm of chefs who find themselves facing a wavelet. And there ... it is nothing other than a wavelet, "soberly comments a close friend of Emmanuel Macron, to minimize the political significance of the departure of Aurélien Taché from the Republic on the march (LREM). Sunday, the deputy from the left wing of the macronie, and historic Walker, however slammed the door of the movement, regretting, in the Journal du Dimanche, that "the opening" was "made only to the right »Since the beginning of the five-year term. Worse, it will join the new autonomous group in the National Assembly - called Ecology, democracy, solidarity - which is to be officially launched this Tuesday, May 19 in the morning, and largely composed of many dissidents from LREM, notably Matthieu Orphelin. A real arm of honor to the Head of State, whom the Elysée Palace did not wish to comment on Monday in an official manner.
For the President of the Republic, who has called in all his recent speeches for "union" and "national unity", the news nevertheless comes at the worst time. "It plunges him back into small partisan drums as the country goes through an unprecedented crisis and seeks a second wind for the end of his mandate," continues a parliamentarian. And above all, it reminds once again that LREM remains a colossus with feet of clay ”. "The birth of the Republic on the march foreshadowed all this: when we have 314 deputies who arrive without experience and without unity in the hemicycle, it was necessarily written that there was going to be tension", abounds another confidant of the chief of State.
Bayrou's political weight strengthened
So necessarily, behind the "calm" of the facade, it was rather with cold anger that Macron welcomed the creation of the new group. "Many are alumni of the PS. It's fractionism, the chapel wars maintained by people with detestable practices who made their classes at the MJS (Editor's note: Mouvement des jeunes socialistes) ! "Downright charges a regular visitor to the Palace, quoting this sentence from François Mitterrand:" The MJS is the school of vice ". Especially since Aurélien Taché did not even take care to warn the Elysée before the announcement of his departure: "Bad manners of a spoiled little spoiled boy!" "We pingle, a little bitter in view of the particular relationship that had the head of state and the member for Val-d'Oise:" Aurélien was one of those parliamentarians with whom he often and very directly exchanged because he was able to tell him frankly, and without gloves, things that do not necessarily please, "says an elected official.
On the political level, the composition of this new group could cause the loss of the absolute majority, fixed at 289 seats, which LREM had at the Assembly: the Walkers are already "only" 295. Even if they can always count on the support of the 46 deputies of MoDem to pass their texts.
“MoDem has been a stable and solid pillar of the majority for three years. This stability and solidity is our nature, ”says the chairman of the centrist party, François Bayrou, whose political weight will inevitably be reinforced in this sequence. For his part, Sibeth Ndiaye rejects the accusations of the new group, according to which the cursor of the majority would have moved to the right: “The economic course of the quinquennium was very clear from the start. Budget control, unlocking the economy, easing the job market. We implemented the 2017 program without ever drifting from our center of gravity, ”said the government spokesperson.
Still, for Macron, the initiative also recalls bad memories, when, then Minister of the Economy, he had had trouble leaving with the rebellious Socialist deputies who opposed his law "growth and activity", to the point of force Manuel Valls to use 49-3 to have his text adopted. "I just hope that we will not get there in the coming months ...", worries an LREM executive.
