MEP Pascal Canfin takes the defense in The world of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who in her view should not be “changed”, and criticizes the “strategy of tension” of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. “There would be no political benefit to changing the Prime Minister, except to change the line,” said Pascal Canfin, in charge of government relations within the presidential Renaissance party, in an interview posted online on Saturday.
“No one would have done better than her” on pensions, “she must not pay the piper” of the Republicans, divided on the reform. “As long as the challenge is to appease, to get back on track, why change? Moreover, no one among the social partners is saying that someone else would have negotiated better,” said the MEP. Asked about Gérald Darmanin’s remarks on the “intellectual terrorism” of the left or his desire to “watch” the public subsidy paid to the League for Human Rights (LDH), Pascal Canfin considers that “we must not fall in a hysterization of the debate, in the conflictuality and in the strategy of tension”.
Gérald Darmanin’s comments on the LDH “not acceptable”
“The key to the success of a central hub is to assume dialogue, nuance, compromise, complexity,” adds the Renaissance manager. “Otherwise, we will play the game of extremism and the weakening of democracy,” says Pascal Canfin. “The adversary of 2027 is the RN”. On the LDH, “a Minister of the Interior cannot threaten to review the subsidies of an organization because he does not agree with it. Democracy is pluralism. This is not an acceptable approach”, considers the MEP, who notes in this respect that “there is no official position of the government on this subject”.
On the tensions between the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger and President Emmanuel Macron, he considers that before the decision of the Constitutional Council on April 14, “it is too early to project ourselves into a quality dialogue”. “The majority must first put more emphasis on its social measures” and “the tax issue should not be a taboo”, he says. On ecology, the former EELV activist considers that “things are progressing but we don’t see it enough”.