Paris (AFP)

The noise has been around for months, but LREM is more than ever on the lookout: a ninth political group with dissident "walkers" could see the light of day in the Assembly, the government seeing in advance a "nonsense" Politics".

Speculation about this new entity focused on the themes of ecology and the social was revived at the end of last week by the publication of extracts from a provisional profession of faith in Les Echos.

Since then, a list with around twenty names has been circulating to form this 9th group called "Ecology democracy solidarity". There are ex-"walkers" like Matthieu Orphelin (close to Nicolas Hulot), members of the "social democratic collective" like Delphine Bagarry or Martine Wonner, "walkers" of the left wing like Aurélien Taché, Guillaume Chiche or Cédric Villani (still a member of the LREM group) and a few non-members like Delphine Batho (former PS Minister for Ecology).

Socialist Cécile Untermaier, given as a member, denied. Asked about France info, Aurélien Taché, told him not "particularly" to wish the creation of such a group, adding: "I would see when things happen if they happen".

At the end of the Council of Ministers, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said that she regretted "if that was the case" that "the ferment of division is at work" in an "exceptional" period , seeing it as "a political misinterpretation".

Most of the elected officials cited are part of the initiative of 60 parliamentarians with an ecological and social fiber who unveiled their thirty proposals on Wednesday for "the day after" the coronavirus crisis: revaluation of the salaries of caregivers, renovation plan energy or universal income.

The leader of the "walkers" Gilles Le Gendre saw in these proposals "political ulterior motives", "very correlated with the subject of the 9th group".

For LREM number one Stanislas Guerini, things are "fairly active and imminent". The number of nine political groups would be a record. And the majority group (296 members) is threatened with losing the absolute majority (289 seats) which it holds for the time alone, a strong symbol even if it can rely on the 46 MoDem and the dozen 'elected Act.

Hence a certain agitation on all floors. According to parliamentary sources, the dissemination of the profession of faith was an orchestrated leak in an attempt to torpedo the initiative. All of the "walkers" were immediately "called to order", some of them having been caught in the process.

Gilles Le Gendre sent a message to the troops, warning against "any attempt to divide". On Tuesday, he told the press his doubts about the ability of such a group to weigh in light of the "hypotheses of figures circulating".

Some elected officials considered to be "not opportune" a launch in the middle of a health crisis, like Claire Pitollat ​​or Cécile Rilhac.

- "Stowaways" -

Some elected legitimists see it as an opportunity to get rid of "stowaways".

And a framework of the majority already embraces a "group of odds and ends to try to exist", denying any "hard blow" for Emmanuel Macron because the potential dissidents "do not seem in the frontal opposition".

For Stanislas Guerini, it is also "off the beaten track", particularly politically, since the line which will be drawn for the end of the five-year period will grant "a predominant share" to social and ecological subjects.

Gilles Le Gendre also pointed out on Tuesday that the majority group was working on proposals.

Referring to "a new political cycle" post-coronavirus, he also believes that it "probably goes through significant changes" in the animation of the majority.

It is also a way of avoiding criticism, when a Macronist deputy considered that the initiative in gestation "will settle the political and individual mismanagement of the group".

Meanwhile, in the opposition, some do not sulk their pleasure, like ironic communists: "after The Republic on the march, we have the Republic in pieces ..."

© 2020 AFP