They were supposed to start fresh. After four weeks without seeing each other, punctuated by misunderstandings, even tensions over the formation of the government or the tax increases envisaged in the next budget, Michel Barnier was invited for the first time, Tuesday morning, to the meeting of the Ensemble group for the Republic (EPR, former Renaissance group). A little moment with the first group of its fragile “common base”before confronting his opponents in the hemicycle, in particular the left, who brandished, this afternoon, the threat of censorship – doomed to failure without the reinforcement of RN votes. We had a warmer warm-up. An EPR deputy, although from LR, the political family of the Prime Minister, emerges “mixed”. Another cries for mercy: “terrible”…
“He makes us fools in his interview”
Suggested by Michel Barnier, who said “available”desired by the president of the group Gabriel Attal, who preferred a formal exchange to the proposal of a drink with the parliamentarians in Matignon, the interview had nevertheless started well. “It’s important for me to be there,” begins, all honey, the Prime Minister, who wishes “proximity, fluidity” with the EPR group. “We need to get to know each other.” he continues, boasting about his relationship “fluid and quite simple” with Emmanuel Macron and saying “very proud” to count “around ten deputies” EPR in his government. From the outset, he tried to patch things up with Nicolas Metzdorf: the Caledonian was angry to learn, during the general policy declaration, the abandonment of the project to unfreeze the electorate, a constitutional reform for which he was rapporteur and which had set the archipelago ablaze, and angered that the Prime Minister did not answer his question the next day in the hemicycle.
The Macronists had little taste for the ironic response to their group president from Michel Barnier “very attentive (to) proposals for additional savings (which Gabriel Attal would submit to him, editor’s note)… To cope with a deficit that I found when I arrived!” Then, they noted, satisfied, a change in tone, more flattering and benevolent, In the Tribune Sunday, by concluding that the Prime Minister was finally going to get in shape. “He makes jokes about us in his interview and then… he couldn’t help himself,” sighs a showered MP.
It was in the questions and answers with the Macronist deputies, gathered in the Colbert room, that things went off the rails. Bracing on their credo of not increasing taxes, they have been turning for three weeks against the tax avenues explored by the government in the finance bill for 2025. The increase in the tax on final consumption of the electricity or the postponement to July 1 of the indexation of retirement pensions to inflation do not excite them any more. They make it known. If Barnier plans to abandon measures, in favor of agreements with other groups, as far as they know, calls on Gérald Darmanin.
“He put bullet casings on everyone”
Clearly, does the Prime Minister intend to drop the measure on retirement pensions, to satisfy LR or the RN? Barnier stiffened. Eléonore Caroit lets him know that she and her colleagues are happy to see him and have been waiting for this moment. Dry response from the Prime Minister, stung, who recalls his participation in an aperitif on the evening of their parliamentary day on September 10. An angel passes. To the Yvelines MP Karl Olive, who nevertheless expresses his support for him and suggests that he “distrust the technostructure”, Barnier retorts that he is not “not at all hostage to technostructure”. And Darmanin, ex-LR, takes over, slipping: “I too have been at least as much of a minority as you in the past.”
The Macronists are touchy, on edge about their balance sheet. Barnier is touchy. “He put bullet casings on everyone in response,” says a participant irritated. “Every time we make a criticism, we get a little slap in the face. Not really necessary,” adds another. “No violence, he responded with barbs to a few barbs, without adding any more,” minimizes a third.
Not sure that the acidic exchange will help the Macronists to be more cooperative on the budget which must be presented on Thursday. “Michel Barnier has reiterated our responsibility to reduce the deficit and he is right, but there are several paths. We think that when it comes to tax increases, the bill is a little steep. No to the tax cudgel, no to the plane,” reaffirms Mathieu Lefèvre. The EPR group is working on its proposals for reducing public spending: tightening of daily allowances for sick leave, savings on medical transport, resumption of the unemployment insurance reform prepared by Gabriel Attal when he was at Matignon, etc. The Macronists must present their copy on Wednesday, after a new arbitration meeting Tuesday evening. Between them this time.
Source: www.liberation.fr
