The smallest group in the National Assembly finds itself in the position of arbiter in this acute political crisis. After the use of 49.3 to pass its pension reform, the government of Elisabeth Borne will have to face, this Friday, March 17, a “transpartisan” censure motion tabled by the group “Liberties, Independents Overseas and Territories” (Liot), which has 20 deputies of various political leanings. And which seduces more and more in the ranks of the opposition…
A small group with diverse sensitivities
Within this heterogeneous group which calls itself “clearly in the opposition”: elected officials from overseas, Corsican nationalists, centrists, and more recently four dissidents from the Socialist Party who did not like the alliance with the Rebellious… Formed in 2018 by the deputy of Morbihan Paul Molac (formerly LREM), the small independent group therefore brings together very diverse sensibilities, but claims a strong value of territorial anchoring. Originally, its creation had been motivated by the advantages conferred on the constitution of a parliamentary group, such as the speaking time in the Assembly or the place in committees. “It is to influence the parliamentary debate on issues of rurality, ecological emergency, social justice and European subsidiarity that this group was formed”, entrusts its creator to West France.
It is now led by the deputy of the Meuse, Bertrand Pancher, from the Radical Party. So far not hostile to making agreements with the presidential camp “on major political projects since there was no majority” in the National Assembly, the group nevertheless opposed the pension reform. On March 14, Bertrand Pancher announced “roughly between 16 and 17” votes against the text, and “four to five abstentions” within his troops.
Liot counts the votes
If the bar of an absolute majority to bring down the government seems difficult to achieve, the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already announced that his group would vote for the motion of censure proposed by the Liot group in the Assembly on Monday. The secretary general of the French Communist Party (PCF) Fabien Roussel also announced his support for the motion. On the other side of the political spectrum, the young leader of the National Rally Jordan Bardella also said that his party, which will table its own motion of censure in parallel this Friday, would add its voices to “motions that do not emanate from the RN “. It is the votes of the Republicans that could possibly swing the vote.
Assuring that the “Liot” is in discussion with the LRs, the deputy of the same group Charles de Courson explained on BFMTV wanting “a very open motion of censure (…) to save democracy and political democracy, but also social democracy , and get out of this crisis”. “This relentlessness of the President of the Republic to want to adopt a text which is in the minority in the National Assembly and ultra-minority in the country is pure madness”, he added.
According to his calculations, “if you add up all the opposition excluding Les Républicains but including the Liots, we are something like 256-258. It takes 287 (deputies to adopt the motion of censure, editor’s note). So we would have to that around thirty Republicans vote for this motion of censure”, explains Charles de Courson. “I remind you that they are 61, and there were 30 who wanted to vote against or abstain on the reform”, wants to believe the deputy. If the boss of the right-wing party Éric Ciotti assured Thursday March 17 that the deputies of his group would not vote for any motion, the rebellious Aurélien Pradié affirmed that he would “think” with several of his colleges about voting a motion which would not emanate neither of the Rassemblement National, nor of the Nupes. Liot’s motion therefore has its chances.
