The newly appointed has reached out to the rest of the country’s political formations to promote a coalition government with the participation of all parties, with the exception of La Francia Insumisa (LFI) and the National Agrupation (AN), and thus establish a majority in the National Assembly that gives political stability to the country after the events of recent months.
Bayrou met this Thursday in his office at the Matignon hotel with up to thirty political representatives, including the presidents of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and of the Senate, Gérard Larcher. Left out of the meeting were the leader of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenechon; and the leader of AN, Marine Le Pen, since their formations have never held power or occupied positions in the Government.
Thus, the prime minister has offered attendees two key proposals for his government, such as a “public offer of participation” and the commitment to reopen conversations with political parties and social agents for a period of nine months to repeal the 2023 pension reformwhich both the left and Le Pen’s supporters want to repeal.
According to information collected by the BFMTV news network, the prime minister has committed to addressing these issues and that, if no agreement has been reached in September of next year, the reform approved in 2023 will return to govern. The socialists, present at the meeting, already stated last week that the repeal of this reform was their main condition for supporting Bayrou.
With all this, Bayrou later stated in an interview for the France2 channel his intention to form a government “during the weekend” but, if it is not possible, he hopes to do it in any case “before Christmas”. Previously, a communist deputy, attending the meeting with political representatives, had announced that the prime minister had confirmed these intentions during the meeting.
This same deputy has assured that Bayrout has presented three alternatives to the parties: “Return to the Government (…) Not be in the Government but support it (…) or be in a radical opposition.” However, he has assured that his party is in a fourth scenario, which is to form a real and constructive opposition.
For his part, the secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, has been “very dissatisfied” after the meeting and has asserted that the prime minister “has not given any reason” for not promoting a motion of censure against him. The main left-wing parties – framed within the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, the main parliamentary force – have assured that they will propose motions of censure against any prime minister who is not of their opinion.
Along the same lines, the secretary of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, has stressed that her party – also part of the NFP – “will always” be on the side of “the solutions”, but has declared herself “very concerned” about the situation. . In addition, he has accused the centrists and conservatives of “not wanting to let go of power” and “obstructing” the formation of a new government headed by a progressive prime minister that meets the demands of the Assembly.
Involve La Francia Insumisa and the National Group
Bayrou announced this meeting the day before and even then one of the most notable issues was the absence of LFI and AN in the invitation. The prime minister justified himself by pointing out that only those leaders of political formations that at some point have held power or at least been part of the government would be present at the meeting.
Thus, and despite not inviting them to the meeting, Bayrou has stressed that “this is no reason to exclude them from national life”, and has committed to “find ways to involve” both those of Mélenchon and those of Le Pen “on the work that needs to be done.”
Bayrou was appointed less than a week ago but, in this time, he has already received criticism from the political left and right for the “vagueness” of his interventions and for his management of the disaster in the department of Mayotte, an archipelago in the battered Indian Ocean. by cyclone ‘Chido’, which leaves at least 30 dead although dozens more are feared.
In fact, around two-thirds of the French population consider Bayrou’s first days in government as “unsatisfactory”, according to the latest opinion poll. The same percentage considers that the president was wrong to attend a municipal council in Pau, a town of which he is mayor, when the first damage caused by the passage of ‘Chido’ in Mayotte was already known.
The prime minister was the choice of President Macron, who opted for someone of his choice to replace Michel Barnier, who was expelled from office just three months after taking office after passing a historic motion of censure against him presented by the coalition. of the New Popular Front and supported by those of Le Pen.
Now the prime minister has assured that he will not resort to article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows legislative measures to be approved if a motion of censure is passed, unless there is a situation of “absolute deadlock” in the Assembly. “I want us to have as much dialogue as possible,” he stressed.
Given that the NFP, the bloc with the most representation in the National Assembly, has warned that it will propose motions of censure against any prime minister who is not of its opinion; Bayrou is now seeking to gain partners in Parliament to survive the rejection of the left.
