French PM faces vote of censure from left-wing alliance with little chance of success
Commitment was Élisabeth Borne’s most repeated word when she presented her government program to the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, on Wednesday. The prime minister, appointed in May by the president, Emmanuel Macron, recalled that after the parliamentary elections in June, no party has an absolute majority. “A relative is not and will not be synonymous with a relative action. It is and will not be a sign of impotence,” he warned.
Borne urged the opposition to find compromises to implement reforms and find solutions to citizens’ problems, from the surge in energy prices to insecurity, through the fight against the pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine. “In the face of such challenges, disorder and instability are not an option,” he said.
“I want us to return together to give meaning and virtue to the word ‘compromise’, which has been forgotten for too long in our political life,” said the head of the executive in an hour-and-a-half speech, often interrupted and jeered by the opposition, especially from the left-wing benches. “I am not a woman who shuns challenges,” said the prime minister, a great unknown to most French people. “I believe in three things: listening, action and results,” he added.
Borne presented the program of the new cabinet to the deputies. He announced, among other things, the increase in teachers’ salaries and measures to achieve full employment, fight inflation and increase the purchasing power of the French.
He confirmed that the pension reform, postponed by covid, is still on the table. “Yes, we will have to work gradually for a while,” recalls Borne. The government wants to postpone retirement until 65 – currently 62 -, which unions and part of the opposition are opposing.
On the other hand, unlike the majority of its predecessors, Borne did not submit to a vote of confidence from the deputies yesterday. Given that Macron’s party and its allies had a relative majority in the National Assembly, it lacked enough votes to overcome it. However, the Constitution was not obliged to do so. Faced with his refusal, the left-wing parties – La France Insumisa, the Socialist Party, Europe Ecology-The Greens (EE-LV) and the Communist Party – jointly filed a motion of censure.
“If the prime minister had tabled a vote of no confidence, there would have been no censure vote, that’s for sure,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union (Nupes), told BFMTV. left-wing parties for the parliamentary elections. Madam Prime Minister, you cannot ask for a confidence vote. And I dare say it was well done because we have no faith in your government,” added far-right Marine Le Pen, who criticized Borne for “as if nothing had happened” in the parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party lost. its absolute majority.
The National Assembly is due to vote on the motion of censure on Friday or early next week. However, there is not much chance of success, because the left has insufficient votes. It would need the support of Marine Le Pen’s moderate-right and far-right parties. But the Republicans and the National Regroup have already given their denial. Barring surprise, Borne will remain in his position.
Source: La Verdad
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