While the joint joint committee had just found a compromise and the final text had to be put to the vote in the National Assembly, Elisabeth Borne used article 49.3 of the Constitution this Thursday, March 16. “Today, on the text of the Parliament, uncertainty hangs over a few votes. We cannot take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse.”
The opposition reacted widely following this declaration and several motions of censure will be tabled this Friday, March 17. “We will vote on all the censure motions tabled. I think Madame Borne should have ended her speech by saying that she was leaving,” said Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group, at the microphone of France 2.
In the ranks of the majority, some are also disappointed. “We should have gone to the vote. I oscillate between disappointment and anger after this 49.3,” said Renaissance MP for Côtes-d’Armor Éric Bothorel on Twitter, reports BFMTV.
On the strength of this observation, the deputies of Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) tabled a “transpartisan” motion of censure this Friday, March 17, shortly after 2 p.m. Bertrand Pancher, chairman of the group, said: “We demand the immediate withdrawal of the pension reform and the resignation of the government.”
To succeed, the motion must collect 287 votes, i.e. an absolute majority in the National Assembly. The rebels, environmentalists, communists and socialists have already co-signed the LIOT motion. For Julien Bayou, ecologist deputy from Paris, “this is perhaps the first time that a motion of censure can bring down the government”.
One doubt remains, however: what about the Les Républicains deputies? Eric Ciotti, president of the LR group, hammered Thursday that “we will join no motion of censure.” However, some LR deputies are not so categorical: this is the case, for example, of Maxime Pinot, deputy of Oise who revealed, at the microphone of France 2, that he will have “no qualms about voting for a motion of censure.”
If nothing is decided yet, a question arises: who could take over from Elisabeth Borne? Check it out in our slideshow below.