From the Assembly to Matignon, after the re-election of Braun-Pivet, the left faces the risk of losing everything

POLITICS – One defeat can hide others. The New Popular Front failed to have its candidate elected, Thursday, July 18, to the presidency of the National Assembly. The communist André Chassaigne actually failed by 13 votes from Yaël Braun-Pivet, the Macronist who is therefore reinstalling herself in the Perchoir thanks to the votes of the right.

This is an undeniable setback for the left, which, having come out on top on the evening of the second round of the legislative elections, hoped to send a positive signal about its ability to govern at a time when Emmanuel Macron has still not asked them for anything. It failed. Worse still, the inaugural day in the Assembly, Thursday, could mark the starting point of a series of rather scathing disappointments.

The reason: if Yaël Braun-Pivet was able to keep her seat, it was at the price of an alliance with Les Républicains (historical channel) led by Laurent Wauquiez at the Palais Bourbon. An alliance ” whose counterparts we will discover “, according to the resigned words of Olivier Faure… And the outlines of which revealed by the press can indeed give the NFP cold sweats.

Two key positions in the balance

According to several media outlets, the group of 47 deputies (the 5th in the Palais Bourbon) obtained the presidential camp’s support to glean several key positions: among others, two vice-presidencies (including the first, the most prestigious), a quaestorship and the presidency of the highly coveted Finance Committee. Positions occupied by the left, in whole or in part, during the last legislature. In this case, during the first votes organized on Friday evening, Xavier Breton and Annie Genevard were indeed elected vice-presidents (at the expense of the RN candidates in particular), and Michèle Tabarot to the quaestorship.

For Les Républicains, the other big loser in the legislative elections with around fifteen fewer deputies, this is an unexpected gain. If the plan goes according to plan until the end, they will regain the level of representation in the Assembly that they had with the UMP in 2012. They then had nearly 200 deputies, as noted A Parliament specialist on social networks. And the game seems to be going pretty well.

Because despite its maneuver to reinstall Yaël Braun-Pivet in the Perchoir, Laurent Wauquiez’s group has officially registered in the opposition. This allows it to run for reserved positions, such as the first vice-presidency, held since 2022 by a socialist, and the Finance Committee, chaired by the rebellious Éric Coquerel during the last legislature.

The Seine-Saint-Denis MP explains that he does not believe in an alliance to steal his place, given that it is customary for MPs registered in the ” majority ” (as is the case for elected officials from the Renaissance party, MoDem and Horizons) not to participate in the vote. ” The rule is that the chairman of the Finance Committee is in the opposition. From there, it is in the opposition that it is settled, otherwise it means that it is the majority that chooses the opposition that it wants. “, he summed up this Friday in the corridors of the Palais Bourbon. Optimistic.

The presidential camp’s helping hand to the Wauquiez clan

In fact, the presidential camp could break with this practice during the vote scheduled for Saturday morning, as several sources suggest. The LR are in the opposition, we will vote for the LR “, for example, Macronist MP Denis Masséglia explained bluntly in a Twitch live on Thursday evening, before confirming: ” We are going to vote, nothing prevents it. »

From then on, the left would have very few options to prevent the victory of a Republican candidate for this strategic position, as already seen in the vote on Thursday evening for the Perchoir. And those on Friday for the first key positions, which confirm the current bad run of the NFP.

In this context, the race for Matignon seems more uncertain than ever for the New Popular Front, which is still bogged down in the designation of its potential Prime Minister. Because if it seems difficult for the presidential camp and LR to convert an alliance of circumstances in the Assembly into a real exercise of power in government, the impasse in which the left seems to find itself looks very much like a solid barrier.