It didn’t take long. The government went to nine votes of censorship after the use of article 49.3 on its pension reform project, Monday March 20 in the National Assembly, after a session however less burning than those of the week previous one, the opposition already anticipating the next.
At 6:50 p.m., the deputies of the left, standing and wearing their elected scarves, began to sing ” resignation, resignation “haranguing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in a Palais-Bourbon padlocked all day by cordons of police and gendarmes.
A few seconds earlier, the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, had proclaimed that the motion of censure they supported had failed. The disaster has not gone far for the executive. Nineteen deputies from the Republicans (LR) out of 61 finally voted in favor of the text carried by the centrist group Freedom, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT), which attracted 278 votes out of the 287 necessary: Emmanuelle Anthoine ( Drôme), Jean-Yves Bony (Cantal), Ian Boucard (Territory of Belfort), Fabrice Brun (Ardèche), Dino Cinieri (Loire), Pierre Cordier (Ardennes), Josiane Corneloup (Saône-et-Loire), Vincent Descœur ( Cantal), Fabien Di Filippo (Moselle), Julien Dive (Aisne), Francis Dubois (Corrèze), Pierre-Henri Dumont (Pas-de-Calais), Justine Gruet (Jura), Maxime Minot (Oise), Aurélien Pradié (Lot ), Raphaël Schellenberger (Haut-Rhin), Isabelle Valentin (Haute-Loire), Pierre Vatin (Oise) and Jean-Pierre Vigier (Haute-Loire).
“Nine voices close” thus becomes one of the new slogans of the opposition. The government is “already dead in the eyes of the French”wants to believe the president of the deputies La France insoumise (LFI) Mathilde Panot in front of a tide of journalists, some of whom came from abroad, present in the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes du Palais-Bourbon.
Less tense session
The frenzy seized the halls of the Assembly after the announcement of the tight result, never seen since a motion against the government of Pierre Bérégovoy in 1992. But throughout the day, the Hemicycle remained far from of the tumults of last week when the Prime Minister had triggered article 49.3, a constitutional weapon allowing the adoption of a text without a vote by engaging the responsibility of the government, on its pension reform project. The rejection indeed seemed clearly expected by the camps for and against.
The successive speeches of the group presidents took place in relative calm. The president of the Renaissance group, Aurore Bergé, on the offensive, aroused a bronca from the left and the National Rally (RN) by accusing them of wanting to do “common program” by voting the same motion of censure. The deputies of the two wings of the hemicycle did not fail in return to point out to him, by pointing to the benches, that those of the elected representatives of the presidential camp were particularly sparse on this decisive Monday for the leader of the majority Elisabeth Borne, on the contrary ministers who came in large numbers to support her.
But we cannot say that the elected officials were suspended on the assumption of a reversal of the government. When deputy LIOT Charles de Courson (Marne) vilified at the opening of the session the “denial of democracy” of the government, a Renaissance deputy preferred to read Le Figaro. When MP RN Laure Lavalette (Var) was speaking, it was an LFI MP who was reading The diplomatic world. And even during Elisabeth Borne’s speech, an elected official of the majority was relaxed enough to leaf through his newspaper.
“Meet in the Street”
On white signs that they had prepared in advance to scold Elisabeth Borne in the hemicycle, the deputies of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) had taken care to prepare the messages “meet in the street”or « RIP » echoing the shared initiative referendum that they filed with the Constitutional Council to try to bring down the pension reform.
Without waiting for the result of the polls, the RN group made an appointment on Tuesday morning for the filing of their appeal before the Constitutional Council, a procedure different from the RIP, which the left and the LIOT group also intend to use.
From now on, all eyes are turned towards the Elysée, towards the members of the Constitutional Council and towards the street for the oppositions. “Put on your best shoes. Either we dance or we walk tonight”, anticipated in the middle of the day the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau (Paris). It will be walking.
Voting details
The motion of no confidence tabled by the independent centrist group LIOT attracted 278 votes out of the 287 needed.
- RN: all of the group’s 88 deputies voted in favour.
- Renaissance, Horizons, MoDem: unsurprisingly, no member of the presidential coalition supported it.
- LFI: the 74 deputies of the group voted in favor.
- LR: 19 of the group’s 61 deputies voted in favour. Here is the list : Emmanuelle Anthoine (Drôme), Jean-Yves Bony (Cantal), Ian Boucard (Territory of Belfort), Fabrice Brun (Ardèche), Dino Cinieri (Loire), Pierre Cordier (Ardennes), Josiane Corneloup (Saône-et-Loire), Vincent Descœur (Cantal), Fabien Di Filippo (Moselle), Julien Dive (Aisne), Francis Dubois (Corrèze), Pierre-Henri Dumont (Pas-de-Calais), Justine Gruet (Jura), Maxime Minot (Oise), Aurélien Pradié (Lot), Raphaël Schellenberger (Haut-Rhin), Isabelle Valentin (Haute-Loire), Pierre Vatin (Oise) and Jean-Pierre Vigier (Haute-Loire).
- Socialist Group: the 31 deputies of the group voted in favour.
- Ecologist Group: the 22 deputies of the group voted in favour.
- GDR group: the 22 deputies, communists and relatives, of the group voted in favor.
- LIOT Group: 18 of the 20 members of the centrist and independent group voted for the motion that their group tabled.
- Deputies not registered: 4 of the 5 non-registered voted forthey are Véronique Besse (Vendée), David Habib (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Adrien Quatennens (Nord) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Essonne), so Emmanuelle Ménard (Hérault) did not take part in the ballot.
The motion of censure of the National Rally (RN) was unsurprisingly rejected, collecting only 94 votes.
- RN: the 88 deputies of the group supported the motion.
- LR : 3 deputies The Republicans voted « pour » the motion: Pierre Cordier (Ardennes), Maxime Minot (Oise) and Fabien Di Filippo (Moselle).
- Socialist Group : 1 of the 31 socialist and related deputies voted for : Christian Baptiste (Guadeloupe).
- Non-attached: 2 of the 5 non-attached MPs (Véronique Besse (Vendée), David Habib (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Adrien Quatennens (Nord), Emmanuelle Ménard (Hérault) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Essonne)) voted for: Véronique Besse and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.