It is the smallest group in the Chamber and makes the government tremble. The little beast that would like to eat the big one. First signatory of a "transpartisan" motion of censure – co-signed by elected representatives of the Nupes and tabled Friday against the government in response to 49.3 – the group, composed of twenty deputies united under the banner Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territory (Liot), is today the one that has the best chance of sinking the executive.
"It is the return to the Fourth Republic: it is the smallest group that begins to have the most influence in a fragmented Parliament," laments Macronist deputy Jean-René Cazeneuve.
At the head of the protest, Charles de Courson, centrist deputy of the Marne. Elected since 1993, he has become one of the mascots of the Assembly for his marked opposition to the government. It is he who carries the "transpartisan" motion of censure of the Liot group which thus finds itself in a pivotal position.
🔵 The LIOT Group has filed a #MotionDeCensureTransPartisane on the #ReformeDesRetraites.
Here is the statement by the President @BertrandPancher ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/5Yodd51kUG
— Independent Freedoms Overseas and Territories (@GroupeLIOT_An) March 17, 2023
>> Read also - Motion of censure, referendum, dissolution... After the 49-3, what follow-up to the pension reform?
Pivotal role
Born last June, Liot was not initially hostile to the idea of collaborating with the presidential camp, which does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly. Emmanuel Macron had also cited it, in the same way as The Republicans (LR), as a group with which he wanted to be able to forge an "alliance" to allow certain texts to be adopted.
But the methods of the executive to carry out its reform have caused a break, and Liot is now propelled leader of the sling against the government after the triggering, Thursday, of the 49.3 by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
"We have the ability to bring together as many people as possible," says Bertrand Pancher, leader of the group. Indeed, the group is now considered by the Nupes and the National Rally – which has also tabled its own motion of censure – as the most likely to gather votes from the far right to the far left.
Its absence of a marked political colour should indeed allow all the other opponents to rally to the "transpartisan" motion of censure, unlike that tabled by the National Rally group, which is however willing to vote for the motions of the others.
As for the Napes, as Liot does not have a sufficient number of MPs to table a motion of censure alone, the four groups of the Left Alliance have already announced their intention to give their support, in order to reach the sixty signatures required.
While encouraging "spontaneous mobilizations throughout the country", Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced that LFI was withdrawing its motion of censure to support that of Liot which, according to him, has more chances of being voted by right-wing MPs unfavorable to the pension reform.
If my friends sang the Marseillaise, it is to refuse to trivialize the 49.3.
They were right.
We have decided to give the greatest possible chance to censorship, and therefore to support the motion of censure of the LIOT group.#le7930Inter #MotionDeCensureTransPartisane pic.twitter.com/0beXpfZDj1
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) March 17, 2023
Everything now seems to rest on the right. But if Bertrand Pancher explained Friday that he was still trying to convince LR deputies to affix their signature, his last efforts remained in vain. In total, the motion garnered 91 signatories from five political groups, he told Reuters. But no MP Les Républicains (LR) signed the motion of censure.
"The vote on this motion will make it possible to emerge from the top of a deep political crisis," he told the press, regretting that "LR colleagues are not signatories".
Earlier, on BFM TV, Charles de Courson explained: "If you add up all the oppositions, we are at 256 or 258 votes." Recalling that it takes a total of 287 votes to vote censure, and that thirty Republican votes are therefore necessary for this, the deputy of the Marne continues: "In the LR group, they are 61. There were 30 who wanted to vote against or abstain, and the votes against were estimated at 25 or 26. If everyone votes, it could get us out of this political crisis."
04:51
Charles de Courson, protest leader
"The use of 49.3 signals the failure of this government, and I know from the indiscretions of members of the presidential majority that many were opposed to the use of 49.3, because it signs the weakness of the government," said Charles de Courson on Friday morning.
Although he does not usually have the profile of the rebel, Charles Amédée du Buisson de Courson – who holds the record for longevity in the Assembly, and whose family has always sat there since the Revolution – has nevertheless always been ready to fight when he deemed it necessary. Like in 2019, when he fiercely opposed the anti-thug bill.
"What we would like is to have a very open, transpartisan motion of censure, to save political and social democracy," he said Friday, castigating the umpteenth appeal of the executive to 49.3. "This determination of the President of the Republic to absolutely want to adopt a text that is a minority in the National Assembly and ultra-minority in the country is pure madness."
This is not the first time the member has taken the bull by the horns. At the beginning of February, he had already distinguished himself in the hemicycle by condemning the refusal of the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, to examine a referendum motion tabled by Liot on behalf of 58 opposition MPs. "By doing this, you participate in the denial of democracy," he told the president, to the applause of the Nutes group.
"How could you refuse the referendum motion we tabled [...] to avoid a vote?" said @C_deCourson (Liot) to @YaelBRAUNPIVET. "You are participating in the denial of democracy." #Retraites #RéformeDesRetraites #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/X2fGSriaCK
— LCP (@LCP) February 6, 2023
Does the Liot Group's no-confidence motion have a chance of winning enough votes to bring down the government? Charles de Courson was cautious. "We will see it on Monday, but we can not continue like this," he replies, for example, to France Info.
In any case, the Marne MP warned that the motion of censure was only the first step in the battle. Deploring a situation that "ruins the democratic system", Charles de Courson announced the color: if the text was adopted without a vote, it will go to the Constitutional Council.
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