“We don't give a blank check”
Is this a way to revisit the cat and mouse game? As Michel Barnier continued his consultations on Sunday to form his ministerial team and define his roadmap, the National Rally, whose leaders saturated the media space this weekend, made it known that it intends more than ever to place in the center of the game.
His armed wing: the contingent of 126 deputies in the Assembly – and even 142 with the help of Eric Ciotti's allies – who could hold the future of the next government in his hands. “We don't give a blank check. If in a few weeks, the French were again forgotten or mistreated, we will not hesitate to censure the government”, Marine Le Pen thundered on Sunday from her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, where she was returning to school.
Marine Le Pen welcomed the search for “compromise” undertaken by Michèle Barnier, in line with what was expected from a prime minister “respectful of the 11 million voters of the National Rally”. She also estimated that the former European Commissioner and minister of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy was not “responsible for the results” of Emmanuel Macron, in particular the “almost unbearable budgetary equation” left “in the legacy”.
A government “under surveillance”
While on Saturday RN head Jordan Bardella assured that he did not want to participate in “institutional disorder and democratic chaos” by toppling Michel Barnier from the start, Marinee Le Pen insisted on Sunday, judging that “it will not be very reasonable to carry out censorship after his general policy speech”.
But the new prime minister is still “under surveillance,” as Jordan Bardella said Saturday morning. “It's not a threat, it's an arithmetic fact,” defended Marine Le Pen on Sunday. Eager to weigh in, Marine Le Pen intends “in the coming weeks to indicate to the prime minister the red lines and the measures that we consider important and that must be taken into account.” “Mr. Barnier, on immigration, will really apply the measures he promised during the Republican primaries”, in 2021, when he asked for a moratorium on entries, wonders the framework of the Jean-Philippe Tanguy party in particular.