France’s far right Rassemblement National disinclined to censure PM François Bayrou

The week that was already being hailed as “crucial” for François Bayrou seems so far to have brought him nothing but good news.

While a motion of censure threatened to topple his government, the PS National Bureau said on Monday that it had taken the decision – almost unanimously – to abstain from voting for the sanction.

The two motions were tabled by far left France Insoumise after the PM committed the responsibility of the government, twice triggering Article 49, paragraph 3 of the French Constitution to pass the State and Social Security budgets without a vote of MPs.

On Tuesday, it was the turn of the President of the Rassemblement National (the largest group in the National Assembly with 124 MPs) to reassure François Bayrou.

This morning on Europe 1-CNews Jordan Bardella said he wanted to “avoid uncertainty” when asked whether the Rassemblement National would vote for the motion of censure on Wednesday 5 February.

The president of the nationalist party even picked up on socialist rhetoric – while the “rose party” motivated its split with the New Popular Front on these motions by a “spirit of responsibility”, Jordan Bardella questioned whether “the French would benefit from a new censure”.

“In the current period – which may change tomorrow – the French would not benefit from a new form of instability that could have more serious consequences for the economy than the previous censure”, said Jordan Bardella.

At the same time, the leader of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament was quick to criticise “a budget that is extremely bad for the nation, for the purchasing power of our compatriots and for our country’s economic activity”.

“We fought against it, we are in opposition and by definition opposed to this budget presented by François Bayrou’s government. [However] we have won some undeniable victories over the last few weeks. There will be no delisting of medicines, electricity was cut by 15% on 1ᵉʳ January for 24 million households and retirement pensions have been reindexed”, he added.

But even his critics are not going to spoil Bayrou’s pleasure at having managed not to sink (while being battered by the waves) where his predecessor Michel Barnier did, toppled by a left-wing censure backed by the far right after his invocation of Article 49.3 on the budget.