The French political scene has not been exempt from change over the past five years. Quite the contrary. The coming to power of Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic who had never passed the ballot box until then, the fall of the major traditional parties which had structured the Republic for decades… Getting used to a perpetual new situation has become a condition of survival for the elect. However, the new configuration in the National Assembly, where nothing seems as before, continues to disturb the deputies.
Among these new elements, there is one to which everyone must particularly adapt: the massive presence of the National Rally (RN) at the Palais-Bourbon, which won eighty-nine seats after the legislative elections. A situation of particular concern to the right. Accustomed to having the first opposition group, the Les Républicains (LR) party is now relegated to fourth place.
Especially since, from this unprecedented situation, the figurehead of the RN, Marine Le Pen, also president of the group in the Assembly, has decided to derive all possible political benefits. The message is simple: she is not there to act as an extra, but to act, make herself heard and try to forge a respectability that her repeated attempts to seize power have so far lacked. It was enough to worry the deputies of all stripes, regularly obliged to vote like the elected representatives of the far right, against whom they nevertheless try to maintain a dike.
Fear of being “outdated”
A significant question in the camp of LR, which must more than the others mark its difference, at the risk of being accused of playing the game of those who dream of a union of rights. And whose internal tensions, already existing between a more right-wing fringe and another more centrist, find today in the National Assembly an unprecedented echo.
Observing this, more and more LR deputies are saying to themselves that they will have to walk on eggshells, position themselves intelligently on each text, each amendment. Their fear? Simply being replaced at the Palais-Bourbon as an audible opposition group, because their first place has already been taken. But also being diluted, unable to make themselves heard, without any real identity of their own. Some evoke a fear of being “outdated”. Because those who expected to see a group unable to integrate the codes of the institution arrive on rue de l’Université, they saw the arrival of disciplined elected officials, determined, as Marine Le Pen explained, to vote for what improves the life of the French. All without being suspected by their constituents of any collusion with the government.
You have 49.05% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.