This condition which could cause Bruno Retailleau to leave the government

"All options are open" : from Matignon, the new leader of the Republicans (LR) and Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, has not ruled out leaving the government, refusing to bring to Parliament the proportional representation so dear to François Bayrou.

Meeting with Bruno Retailleau, who soundly defeated him for the party presidency, and with his counterpart in the Senate, Mathieu Darnaud, the leader of the LR deputies, Laurent Wauquiez, said on Monday, June 2, that he was "dismayed" by his exchange with the Prime Minister.

"So we have a country in which we have an explosion in public spending, difficulties with security and immigration that Bruno Retailleau is fighting against, a country where we see the difficulties in the functioning of public services, and the Prime Minister's priority is therefore the change of electoral rules ," Laurent Wauquiez lashed out.

The new strongman of LR, who spoke publicly for the first time to the press with his defeated competitor, Bruno Retailleau, was more polite but just as explicit: as Minister of the Interior, he will refuse to carry out this reform , the hobbyhorse for three decades of Prime Minister François Bayrou, who has multiplied partisan consultations.

The former senator from Vendée reiterated his "very firm, absolute opposition to this voting method" , which "could unbalance the institutions of the Fifth Republic, which needs a majority to function properly". "At a time when decisions need to be made, proportional voting, through this ungovernability, would ultimately lead to a form of public powerlessness" , he argued.

"Maximum risk"

Bruno Retailleau also argued that proportional representation would "once again, even more tear apart rural France and more urban France" , stressing the right's attachment to "rootedness", a "link between the MP, his territory and the population he represents".

Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who also expressed his opposition to proportional representation on TF1, even went so far as to advise his successor at Matignon to "focus on important issues" such as debt reduction and "actions to restore order at the borders and in the streets."

François Bayrou, seeking €40 billion in savings, reiterated his ambitions to Le Figaro . "Do I realize that this is a maximum risk? Yes, but we can't do otherwise (...) I will not back down," declared the Prime Minister, threatened with censure over the budget as well as the outcome of the conclave between social partners on pension reform.

The aligned exit of the LR, however, casts doubt on the survival of François Bayrou's government, which lacks an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

"Political negotiation"

A casus belli from the right regarding the voting method? "LR will not leave the government on this ground ," assures a source close to the new party leader. But "it is a political negotiation."

Leaving the government, which the LR joined after the dissolution and the 2024 legislative elections, "has to make sense." "There is no ideal timetable," but "the timing has to be understandable," explains this source, referring to the issues of New Caledonia and the institutional development of Corsica.

François Bayrou defends proportional representation in the name of representativeness, based on the 1986 model , the only election of this type in the history of the Fifth Republic, adopted by François Mitterrand and immediately repealed by the right which returned to government.

The Prime Minister, who began a series of consultations with political forces on April 30, will meet with the Greens on Tuesday evening. A draft law could be examined at the start of the school year.

The central bloc is divided. Like LR, Horizons, Édouard Philippe's party, is opposed to this reform. The Macronists have changed their minds on the subject, considering that the first-past-the-post system is now " the least bad ." The RN, which favors proportional representation with a majority bonus, has indicated that it could accommodate the 1986 model.

On the left, the Socialist Party has not yet decided on its position on proportional representation, which is "not the priority" of the communist leader Fabien Roussel, while the deputies of La France insoumise are defending a vote "at a regional level" , as is Raphaël Glucksmann's Place publique party.