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Motions of censure against Macron divide the left in France

2022-10-31T11:49:00.590Z


The French president offers an alliance to the moderate right to govern with a stable majority Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Regroupment party, on October 24 during the debate on the motions of censure. TERESA SUAREZ (EFE) In the caucus of the French left in the National Assembly, the expressions varied between satisfaction and bewilderment. A motion of censure presented on October 24 by the coalition of anti-capitalists, socialists, environmentalists and communist


Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Regroupment party, on October 24 during the debate on the motions of censure. TERESA SUAREZ (EFE)

In the caucus of the French left in the National Assembly, the expressions varied between satisfaction and bewilderment.

A motion of censure presented on October 24 by the coalition of anti-capitalists, socialists, environmentalists and communists had just surprised the votes of the National Regroupment (RN), Marine Le Pen's far-right party.

It was the first of a series of motions of censure that the left and extreme right opposition have presented, separately, in response to the use, by the French Government, of article 49.3 of the Constitution.

This article makes it possible to put an end to the debates on a law and to adopt it without a vote, as a decree.

The only way to stop it is the motion of censure.

In that first motion of the political course, the sum of the votes of the left and the extreme right, 239, was only 50 short of the absolute majority that would have brought down the government of Élisabeth Borne, Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron.

The votes of the Republicans (LR), the party of the moderate right, fourth group in the National Assembly, were missing.

Le Pen's cunning move has revolutionized the parties.

A part of the left – Jean-Luc Mélenchon's anti-capitalists and eurosceptics – celebrates the result.

"The right saves the government for a little", declared Mélenchon, who is not a deputy, but acts as leader of his formation, La Francia Insumisa (LFI).

“There were 50 votes missing to expel the government.

We are ready to take over."

LFI leaders have made it clear that they are not averse to ultra votes: it is the only way to kick Borne out and unsettle Macron.

Others on the left are uncomfortable joining forces with the extreme right.

The Socialists and the other minor partners in the New Social Ecological Popular Union (NUPES) have already announced that they will abstain from the new motion of censure that the LFI melenchonists —hegemons in the leftist coalition— plan to present this Monday.

They do not want to abuse the motions of censure despite the fact that Macron governs by decree.

Nor risk more photos of a clip of the left and the extreme right against the president.

"The PS is subordinate to the LFI: it is as if the PSOE were subordinate to Podemos," Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, former first secretary of the party and today critical of his successor, Olivier Faure, laments over the phone.

The vote of the RN in favor of the motion of the left also puts the focus on the Republicans.

If they had voted for her, today France would have another government.

Or Macron, as he has threatened on occasion if it comes to this point, perhaps he would have dissolved the Assembly and called new elections.

"From now on," Le Pen declared, "there is no longer any doubt that the Republicans are the allies of Emmanuel Macron."

Le Pen's unexpected vote has exposed the precariousness of the French government.

In the June legislative elections, Macron's supporters lost their absolute majority.

They were left with a relative majority and two alternatives.

One is to govern by decree, although the use of article 49.3 of the Constitution is limited to budget laws, as has been the case with the initiatives that have provoked the motions of censure in recent days.

The other option is to lean on the opposition.

In an interview with the

France 2

network last week, Macron launched a double message.

To the leaders of LR he said: "Yes, I want there to be an alliance."

An alliance would give stability to the French Executive.

And it would shield him from the risk that, at some point, the moderate right would join the motions of censure.

Macron sent the second message to the left and the general public: “Do you think that our compatriots who voted for a socialist or environmentalist deputy asked them to build a majority with deputies from the National Regrouping and asked them to present a motion of censure expressly changed? for this baroque coalition of NUPES?

Macron echoed, with these words, a theory spread, among others, by François Kalfon, a member of the PS national bureau: the Mélenchonists would have withdrawn a positive reference to immigration in the motion of censure to facilitate the vote of the extreme right.

“Absolutely false”, replied Faure, current first secretary of the PS, in

Libération

.

There was never such a paragraph later erased, as confirmed by the aforementioned newspaper.

Several sources have pointed out that what happened was that it was simply avoided adding it.

"We have made this motion likely to be voted on by the extreme right!"

Socialist deputy Joël Aviragnet complained to

Le Figaro .

"It would have sufficed to add a point unacceptable to them on immigration or on any other issue."

Cambadélis assures that socialist and environmentalist parliamentarians asked for a phrase to be introduced that would prevent Le Pen from joining the motion.

“But this was rejected by La Francia Insumisa,” he adds.

According to the historical socialist, it is not surprising that Macron viciously attacks the left, since he "has caught LFI red-handed".

“It is a fault, a trivialization of the National Regroupment”, he thinks.

And he concludes that the president's charge against the left is "to prepare the spirits for an alliance with the classic right."

From the pension reform to the measures on immigration, the field to understand each other between Macron and the right is wide.

The right, for the moment, has said “no”.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-10-31

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