The French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is now using constitutional article 49.3, expressly with crocodile tears of regret, so that France still receives a national budget for the current year. This means that the draft, which has been supplemented and corrected over months of debate, is declared adopted without a vote. The left-wing party “La France insoumise” (LFI) immediately announced a motion of no confidence against this approach. The initiative is also supported by the Communists and the Greens.
LFI parliamentary group leader Mathilde Panot accuses the head of government of “lying” because he had always assured that he did not want to use this undemocratic back door of constitutional article 49.3, but instead wanted to find an agreement in discussions. Lecornu couldn’t keep this promise after all. According to his account, the “extremists” of the opposition are to blame for this with their “sabotage” and “obstruction”.
The approximately 60 MPs of the Parti Socialiste (PS) will be the only left-wing faction not to vote against Lecornu and for the overthrow of the government. PS chairman Olivier Faure confirmed this on Tuesday afternoon. With last-minute political concessions, Lecornu managed to negotiate a standstill agreement with the Socialists in the confidence vote. The remaining left-wing factions of the PS leadership are now chalking this up as a break with the already fragile alliance of the “New Popular Front”.
Die attitude of the socialists is understandable from election tactical interests. If the government were to fall again, new parliamentary elections would be inevitable. And if the Chamber of Deputies were to be renewed, the right-wing populists of the RN on the one hand and the left-wing LFI would currently have the most to gain. The Socialists, on the other hand, together with the Macronist government camp (Renaissance, Horizons, MoDem) and the Conservatives, would have to expect heavy losses.
Right-wing mistrust
Parallel to the Left’s initiative, the right-wing extremist Rassemblement National is also submitting a motion of no confidence, which, however, has even less chance of success than the LFI motion. In the past, the right-wing extremist camp in the National Assembly had voted several times for motions of no confidence from the left. Without the support of the PS MPs, neither motion would have the required majority of 288 votes against the government.
Lecornu and his cabinet of ministers are likely to do so Test of confidence in votes survive again. This is both a victory and a capitulation for the government, which does not have a majority in the National Assembly. It is a defeat because Lecornu failed to negotiate a compromise with concessions to the opposition that could come into force within a reasonable time and in the normal way (without 49.3) with a debate and vote by the deputies and the Senate.
In the end, however, it will be a victory for him if he wins despite overwhelming opposition from the left and right can push through a proposal for the state budgetwhich isn’t too far removed from his original design. And last but not least, despite all the prophecies of doom, he should once again be able to survive his position as head of government.