On the military programming law, LR will finally close ranks behind the majority

2023-06-06 19:33:08

Who imagines the party claiming to be General de Gaulle not to vote for a military programming law (LPM)? This question has been swirling in the heads of the majority in recent weeks. Yet the end result is beyond doubt. The text defended by the Minister of Armies, Sébastien Lecornu, should normally be adopted, Wednesday, June 7, in the National Assembly, with the support of the National Rally in particular. But it remains to be seen with how many votes came from the 62 deputies of the Les Républicains (LR) group.

Also read the story: Article reserved for our subscribers Military programming law: a debate under vigilance in the National Assembly

It is a question of planning some 413 billion euros of military expenditure until 2030. Technical subject, the LPM escapes in theory the political quarrels. But in a Hemicycle where the different groups never stop discovering the subtleties of the relative majority, the right has nevertheless given until the last moment the impression of weaving between the vote for and abstention.

Chairman of the National Defense and Armed Forces Committee, Renaissance MP (Rhône) Thomas Gassilloud thus referred the LRs to their DNA, that of a formation which “gives a lot of importance to military affairs and claims to be General de Gaulle”. A way for the elected macronist to place Eric Ciotti’s troops facing their responsibility. “If a majority of their group abstained, I would see that in a logic of partisan approach, distrust to the President of the Republic”he confided on Monday.

“A law that has never been so ambitious”

Good news for Mr. Gassilloud, the LRs are moving towards text support. Without jumping to the ceiling, Olivier Marleix announced it on Tuesday after a group meeting. “We are moving towards a vote for first reading, conditioned on the fact that in the Senate the government goes after the promises it seemed to make”, declared the president of the LR deputies during a press briefing.

But the elected representative of Eure-et-Loir uses a few precautions. Against employment in the role of ally of the majority during the pension reform, Mr. Marleix did not intend to offer an easy victory to the presidential camp. In April, he ruled “insincere” the impact study carried out by the government on the LPM and even seized the Constitutional Council.

In the group, his line clashed courteously with that of his colleague from Seine-et-Marne, Jean-Louis Thiériot. “If there is a law on which we do not make politics, it is the LPM, assures the vice-president of the defense committee. We think what we want from the bottom, but our family comes out of a very beautiful sequence on immigration, speaks with one voice. Now is not the time to play the opposition on a law that has never been so ambitious. »

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