Certain of not obtaining an absolute majority in the Assembly, the new Prime Minister will not ask for a vote of confidence after his general policy speech.
The general policy speech is an exercise that all new French heads of government undertake in front of deputies. Most, at the end of their speech, pledge the confidence of the Assembly by a vote. This decision, however, rests with each Prime Minister. For his part, Gabriel Attal, after prolonging the suspense, opted to do without a vote of confidence, according to information from Le Parisien. Because the Prime Minister clearly understood that he would have to govern without a majority.
It is no coincidence that Gabriel Attal announced his decision this Tuesday morning, during a breakfast at Matignon with some executives from the executive. The evening before, the head of the Republicans Eric Ciotti declared on TF1 that the deputies of his party would not vote for confidence in the government, if there was a vote. Confirmation, if Attal still needed it, that we should not count on LR to find an absolute majority in favor of the executive in the chamber.
Eric Ciotti was clear: LR deputies will vote “neither confidence nor censure at this stage”. No vote of confidence “because we are in the opposition”, he keeps insisting. But “not in systematic opposition unlike others”, he qualified, justifying his refusal to support the motion of censure promised by La France insoumise.
From then on, Gabriel Attal deduced his conduct sheet from the declarations of the president of LR. There will be no vote of confidence, but, he recalls, “there will necessarily be a vote” since there will be a motion of censure.
The Prime Minister knows what he is doing: unlike the vote of confidence, for which the government calls on all deputies to vote for or against, the motion of censure, called by one or more opposition groups, mobilizes only those who wish to support it. These are indeed two distinct tools, towards which groups like LR do not adopt the same behavior at all. The motion of censure of La France insoumise has very little chance of garnering a majority of deputies in favor.
Gabriel Attal will therefore ignore the vote of confidence during his general policy speech, scheduled for the end of January. A rare choice, but identical to that of her predecessor, Elisabeth Borne, who had to be the first to present her roadmap in front of a chamber deprived of an absolute majority.
