With 126 deputies (not counting the 16 “Ciotists” elected), “the reality is that we are the first political force and therefore we cannot do without”, he swelled, even before the appointment of Mr. Barnier to Matignon. , RN Vice President Sébastien Chenu, Thursday at RMC/BFMTV.
Judge before censorship?
After rejecting the hypotheses of Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand, the party with the flame finally validated the Barnier track, explaining to the head of state that it will wait to judge the new government on the evidence, before eventually deciding to censure her.
Michel Barnier has been “approved” by the RN, the front page of the left-wing newspaper Libération concluded on Friday. He is now “under surveillance” by the far-right party, Le Monde added. In fact, “we have given a certain number of conditions for immediate disapproval”, explained the head of the RN deputies, Marine Le Pen. Starting with “respect for the 11 million voters of the RN”, a first criterion that “Mr Barnier fulfills”, according to her, because “he has never ostracized the RN”.
This green light, at least by default, caused the left to jump. This “blessing” is “extremely serious”, lamented the coordinator of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard, to RMC/BFMTV. “All the people who mobilized to stop the far right from taking power were betrayed today,” he added.
President Macron “places himself in cohabitation with the RN”, estimated, for her part, on RTL the former candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) for Matignon, Lucie Castets.
“Stabilizing Factor”
A word that Jordan Bardella's party does not take: for an RN executive interviewed by AFP, Mr Barnier remains “a political opponent, we do not support him”. However, the fact remains that with this episode, the head of state “puts us back in the center of the game”, hails this source.
“We do not play in the politics of the worst […] We are the ones who allow (to avoid) chaos or deadlock, we are the ones who allow there to be a prime minister for France”, adds this official, for whom the party thus presented itself as a “stabilizing factor of the country”. . “Behind that, our ideas are moving forward,” he adds.
For the political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, this pragmatism “can certainly help the RN to conquer the social strata that are still a little resistant to it”, especially the wealthy socio-professional categories. They are looking for “institutional respectability” and reluctant to entrust the reins of the country to “the people who are going to make the revolution”, explains this extreme right specialist.
In this case, the message addressed to the electorate is rather: “We are responsible, therefore able to access the highest positions”, analyzes Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic, director general of the BVA. A decisive element for a party which, according to opinion polls, still suffers from a significant credibility deficit, according to her.
While a new government will be in place and the start of the school year approaches MPs, elected RNs will now be tested for their ability to participate in the parliamentary game. Excluded in July from the main key positions in the Assembly, the party managed, however, this week to place four of the 20 deputies who will be responsible for working on the state budget in two parliamentary committees.