In the National Assembly,
He left the hay bales for the cozy confines of the National Assembly. Three weeks after his appointment to Matignon, Gabriel Attal (finally) took his “grand oral”, this Tuesday at 3 p.m., in front of the deputies. For a good hour, the head of government delivered his general policy speech in a bustling Bourbon palace. In the midst of an agricultural crisis, the Prime Minister tried to reassure, without providing precise answers. His speech will also not allow him to escape his first motion of censure, tabled by the left even before he spoke. A look back at this eventful day.
A machine gun flow
“He doesn’t see it as a Himalaya, but as the Puy de Dôme. He’s not stressed,” promised a visitor to Matignon. While the ministers and deputies trickle into the hemicycle, the man of the day is already present. His leg shakes nervously under his bench, Gabriel Attal seems impatient to do battle. He exchanges a few words with his Minister of Justice, Eric Dupont-Moretti, receives encouragement from colleagues, and sets off.
Barely on the microphone, the head of government is heckled by the invectives of the rebellious deputies. “How beautiful! », mocks one of them at the first flight. To the almost continuous hubbub of the LFI group, the head of government opposes a machine-gun flow, without ever glancing at his opponents. The President of the Assembly calls for calm, he replies, annoyed: “I promised that I will not stop despite their screams, I can continue without difficulty. » A line held until the end despite attempts to destabilize the rebels.
A personal touch
Apart from a few allusions to his youth – he is the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic – Gabriel Attal does not really come out with his guts. No allusion to his personal journey… before the very end of the speech. “To be French in 2024, it is in a country that only ten years ago was still torn over marriage for all, to be able to be Prime Minister by openly assuming one’s homosexuality,” says the head of government, making for the first time such an explicit reference to his homosexuality since his arrival at Matignon. “In all of this, I see proof that our country is moving. Proof that mentalities are changing,” he said, warmly applauded by the presidential camp.
A speech impacted by the agricultural crisis
At the very moment when Gabriel Attal took the podium, a convoy of tractors was heading towards the Rungis market, in addition to several roads being blocked. In the midst of an agricultural crisis, the intervention of the head of government was therefore eagerly awaited by angry farmers. “Our agriculture is our strength and our pride,” says the Prime Minister. After the announcement of measures deemed “disappointing” last Friday, he promised that his government would “meet” expectations. But the head of government says no more for the moment and is vague on the contours of the “French agricultural exception”, announcing a “removal of standards” without further details.
Motion of censure
The left expected nothing from this speech. As proof, the Nupes groups announced in the morning that they wanted to bring down the government. “We will table a motion of censure which will allow us to have, since we do not have a vote of confidence, a vote of no confidence,” confirmed Mathilde Panot, the leader of the LFI group. “He’s been speaking out of turn for three weeks now. The logic of his policy is already well known, it is to continue to press the hyper-liberal mushroom,” added the communist deputy Pierre Darrheville at midday. The motion is expected to be debated at the end of the week.
Scalded right fears cold water
By promising to fight against the public deficit and illegal immigration, Gabriel Attal tried to seduce the right of the hemicycle. But even the promise of reform “before summer” of State Medical Aid (AME) should not be enough to calm the ardor of LR elected officials. The latter have still not digested the episode of the immigration bill, largely rejected by the Constitutional Council. The most heated have also threatened (once again) to table their own motion of censure. “We are absolutely ready to submit one in the coming weeks, the only one capable of bringing down the government,” assures elected official LR Pierre-Henri Dumont to a few journalists. “We simply have to find the right moment for it to be voted on,” he adds. In the meantime, Gabriel Attal and his government can take a breather.