By announcing on Tuesday his refusal to participate in the next “Saint-Denis Meeting” organized on Friday by Emmanuel Macron, the president of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti, is emptying of its substance this meeting already shunned by LFI and the PS, even if the ‘Elysée wants to keep the “doors open”. “I will not be present in Saint-Denis”: Éric Ciotti justified himself in a newspaper interview Le Figaronotably criticizing “yet another communication approach”, for which he refuses to be the “alibi”.
The table shrinks with defections
After participating in the first meeting at the end of August, the president of LR had until then suggested that he would repeat the experience: “Rather yes”, he replied again last week on his participation, arguing that “by principle, I am not hostile to debate”. But, he now highlights, “the absence of the President of the Republic on Sunday at the demonstration against anti-Semitism finally convinced (him) not to participate.”
What can this new “meeting” look like, the table of which shrinks according to the defections, started by Olivier Faure (Socialist Party), who was followed by Manuel Bompard (La France insoumise)? Certainly, Emmanuel Macron will be able to count on his allies, Stéphane Séjourné (Renaissance), François Bayrou (MoDem), Edouard Philippe (Horizons), Laurent Hénart (Radical Party). The boss of the UDI, Hervé Marseille, who shows consideration towards the presidential majority, will also be present.
Bardella, Roussel and Tondelier respond
But, among the opposition, only Jordan Bardella for the National Rally, Fabien Roussel for the PCF and Marine Tondelier for EELV have announced their arrival. The latter confirmed its participation to AFP on Tuesday, pleading “for environmental justice and social justice to be at the heart of the discussions”. The meeting, now promised to be held on the sly, already promises to be difficult. The doors “will remain open” until the end, said the Elysée in reaction to the “no”.
But the coup of the inaugural edition of August 30, when all the party leaders represented in Parliament agreed to go to the Education House of the Legion of Honor, a stone’s throw from the basilica where the kings of France rest, seems distant. What had been presented as “a major initiative” by Emmanuel Macron had then turned to his advantage, the head of state managing to hold a 12-hour long meeting concluded in the middle of the night.
“Overcoming divisions in the interest of the country”
The second round scheduled for Friday was intended to be consensual: in his invitation sent last week, the President of the Republic called for “overcoming divisions in the interest of the country”, stressing that the “reflections on the avenues for development of the referendum must also be pursued. “It would involve both taking up bills relating to so-called ‘societal’ issues such as the end of life sometimes mentioned, but also broader reforms affecting several intertwined aspects, as is the case with questions migratory issues which concern sovereign, economic, social or even diplomatic matters”, he specified.
On Tuesday, the Elysée also stressed that the meeting should make it possible to take “an update on the international situation, particularly in the Middle East, the consequences of which have resulted in an increase in anti-Semitic acts in France.” Even more than that of LFI and the PS, Eric Ciotti’s refusal therefore appears daring: the boss of LR has been calling for a referendum on immigration since the spring.
Eric Ciotti’s turnaround
A paradox ? The empty chair policy adopted by the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes above all seems to be part of a broader sequence. Because the right-wing party is seeking a position on the immigration bill, torn between the proponents of a “constructive” line in the Senate – especially Gérard Larcher, the LR president of the institution – and the supporters of the rupture, dominated by the head of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, who do not intend to vote on the text and pose the threat of a motion of censure in the event of 49.3.
Chance or coincidence, Eric Ciotti’s change of heart, which surprised even his own ranks, came at the very time when a meeting of the LR group was being held at the National Assembly, in the presence of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône region. -Alps Laurent Wauquiez. However, it was the first time that the putative candidate of the right in the presidential election had gone to this meeting since the start of the legislature, an episode seen by some as an attempt to regain control.