"What we have suffered is a test, somewhere also a failure," acknowledged party president Eric Ciotti at the end of a long sequence on pensions where internal divisions in LR culminated Monday in the spectacular vote of a motion of censure.

19 LR MPs out of the 61 in the group then approved a text that would have led to the overthrow of the government.

An earthquake on the right, while the staff of the Republicans had said and repeated its support for the pension reform at the heart of the vote of censure.

The dissidents had largely explained their vote beforehand, arguing an injustice on long careers or the hostility to reform in their rural constituencies.

Still, "the sequence is catastrophic," sighs an LR executive.

Some, pro-reform, have already called for a clear reaction: whoever signs the motion "is no longer intended to sit among us," said Monday the deputy Alexandre Vincendet.

Playing appeasement, Eric Ciotti ruled out any sanction Tuesday in strategic council, according to several participants in the meeting.

It is necessary to "preserve the unity of our political family," he told journalists, promising a general assembly of the right on June 4 to bridge differences through work on ideas.

"Precarious"

Eyes also turned to the deputy Aurélien Pradié, at the forefront of the sling on the pension reform, and accused of having very mediatically privileged a personal agenda.

The deputy and president of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti (l), with Olivier Marleix, president of the group, at the National Assembly, on March 20, 2023 in Paris © Bertrand GUAY / AFP

"We must commit to more loyalty to the collective," warned without naming the boss of the LR deputies Olivier Marleix. "Everyone realizes that we will have to talk again," said the deputy of the Lot after the strategic council.

Will this awareness bear fruit?

"We stay together, but it's precarious," said a party official.

Because the work on ideas is likely to come up against positions that are difficult to reconcile: "what is at stake is the survival of the right, but also of a non-populist opposition to Emmanuel Macron," said MP Pierre-Henri Dumont, who voted for the transpartisan motion of censure.

Others question the very idea of being in the opposition, with Jean-François Copé or Rachida Dati pleading for a political agreement with Emmanuel Macron.

In their efforts to clarify, Les Républicains have little room for maneuver, as their political space has shrunk: it is difficult to exclude dissidents when you only have 4.8% of the vote in the presidential election.

But some call not to be paralyzed by the stakes: "Nothing is worse than dying slowly," thunders a close friend of Senator Bruno Retailleau.

For LR, the sequence of retreats will have been complicated from every point of view.

Monday's motion of censure was voted by several close to Laurent Wauquiez, which raised questions among some, even though the president of the Auvergne Rhone-Alpes region passes for one of the few presidentiables on the right.

The majority strongly criticized LR, which it had courted throughout the negotiations on pensions. "Within your group, personal trajectories and individual calculations have emerged, which are in no way motivated by the general interest," said Monday the president of the deputies Renaissance Aurore Bergé.

The Republicans have also lost feathers in public opinion: according to an Elabe poll, 76% of French people believe that they come out of the sequence "weakened".

The LR deputy of the Lot, Aurélien Pradié, in public meeting on February 24, 2023 in Pessac (Gironde) © Philippe LOPEZ / AFP / Archives

Finally, several MEPs have borne the brunt of this disaffection: the offices of MEPs Eric Ciotti and Eric Pauget have been degraded, and MEP Agnès Evren has filed a complaint after receiving death threats.

© 2023 AFP