Emmanuel Macron on the tightrope, between the threat of right-wing and the peril of “chiraquization”

2023-12-18 07:00:24
Emmanuel Macron at the end of a European Union summit, in Brussels, December 15, 2023. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

As a spectator of his own destiny, Emmanuel Macron, mistreated by a hostile Parliament, followed from a distance the latest negotiations carried out by his Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to get his five-year term out of the impasse, Sunday December 17. Angered by the challenge thrown at him, a week earlier, by the opposition, which united against him to vote for a motion to reject the “immigration” bill, one of the most important texts of his second mandate, the head of state was described by one of his confidants as ” determined ” not to “allowing oneself to be absorbed by fate or immobility”.

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On Monday, fourteen deputies and senators from all political stripes must decide, behind closed doors, the fate of this text on immigration, crucial for the executive. If this transpartisan joint committee (CMP) were to reach an agreement – ​​and be « conclusive » –, a first obstacle would be overcome, raising all hopes for the final vote, the next day, in the Senate and the National Assembly. But what concessions will Macronie have made to the Republicans (LR), in a position of strength within the CMP, to secure this agreement?

Will Emmanuel Macron still be able to claim “political overtaking” if the final copy is, as some fear, a much more right-wing version than the government’s initial project? Will the executive renounce its values ​​by flirting with the concept of national preference, cherished by part of the right and by the entire extreme right? Success could have a bitter taste. “In the event of an agreement, we must ensure that there is not too much resentment”warns Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, who claims to be from the left wing of the government.

During final negotiations, Sunday, orchestrated from the Matignon hotel with the boss of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, the head of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, his counterpart in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, and the general secretary of the party, Annie Genevard , the Prime Minister tried to trace this narrow path which would make it possible to cajole the right without attacking the left wing of her majority. “At this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement”blurted Eric Ciotti after the meeting.

The leader of the LR demands in particular that the executive put on paper, by letter addressed to the President of the Senate from Monday, the promise of a reform of state medical aid for undocumented foreigners at the beginning of 2024. The Republicans want also a rewriting of article 4 bis of the bill, which allows a form of regularization of undocumented workers. A red line in the eyes of LR deputies like the elected representative of Lot Aurélien Pradié. On the government side, Elisabeth Borne seemed confident about the possibility of combining points of view within twenty-four hours, aware that a snub on the text would, without a doubt, sign the end of her lease at Matignon.

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