“Arm of honor”, ​​“scheming”… How the PS and LFI tear each other apart during the debate on the budget in the National Assembly

Emotion among socialist deputies, who rush to their cell phones to fight the battle on social networks. Wednesday, November 5, in the early evening, while the National Assembly this week examines the Social Security financing bill for 2026, an amendment that they tabled aimed at increasing the generalized social contribution (CSG) on capital income, intended to finance the suspension of pension reform, is rejected. The deputies of La France insoumise voted against. Some environmentalists abstained. “A gigantic arm of honor”accuses the PS deputy for Essonne Jérome Guedj on the social network X, whose video is widely shared by his colleagues. He sees “the illustration of those who prefer everything right away and who ultimately have nothing now”.

The rebels are not left out. LFI MP Paul Vannier claims about X “a victory” in the face of what he describes as “scheme” between the PS and the government. He explains that the LFI elected officials voted against the amendment of the socialist deputies to defend another, tabled by their camp, “better said” car “increasing the CSG on capital in a sustainable manner”.

The number of rebels is contested by the socialist camp. “We have to stop lying” Olivier Faure lectures on X. “A tax injustice cannot be postponed, it is repealed”replies Mathilde Panot, boss of LFI deputies, on the same network. Among socialists, we claim the need not to “let it pass”. “Politically, it was important for us, because it amounts to a questioning of Emmanuel Macron’s ‘flat tax’”a tax at a fixed rate on capital income, explains a collaborator of the socialist group. “And budgetarily, it was a revenue of 2.7 billion which made it possible to finance the suspension of the pension reform”he continues.

Finally, the PS’ fallback amendment, a parliamentary procedure which allows a rejected article to have a form of second chance, is voted on by the rebels. “They understood that this was incomprehensible from the outside”the collaborator of the socialist group is jubilant. “Not at all, it was identical to ours that we had just voted for”retorts Aurélien Lecoq, LFI deputy from the North. The voices of many Macronist deputies (from Renaissance and MoDem) also joined those of the left. The right-wing deputies (Les Républicains and Horizons) voted against, as did the National Rally. Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Accounts, called for a vote in favor. Especially so that the amendment can be re-discussed in the continuation of the parliamentary shuttle but without approving the terms.

Beyond the subtleties of the legislative procedure, this latest episode reflects the tensions between the socialists and the rebels who punctuate this budgetary debate, under the eyes of their political adversaries. “We have to look at Wednesday’s vote on the Guedj amendment. They all stood up. Normally LFI insults the PS a lot, but here, it was physical”testifies an EPR deputy.

Does this tension diminish when we leave the hemicycle and the cauldron of heated discussions? “Meh… It’s gotten really cold. Except with some of them”explains a socialist elected official to franceinfo. “Yesterday, I had lunch at the same table as a member of Jean-Luc Mélechon’s bodyguard who immediately attacks on social networks. This is no longer possible”she continues. This feeling is rather shared among the rebels. “We have no more political exchanges with them since 2024, even no more interpersonal exchanges between deputies, including with the left of the group”notes an LFI deputy from the political department of France Télévisions.

These parliamentary battles betray different political strategies: the rebels wish to censor the government; the socialists hope to obtain progress by putting pressure on it, but without overturning it as a preamble to any discussion. “For four weeks, we have seen that the rebels have a global strategy: not to allow a political victory for the PS”judges a PS deputy at the front of the budgetary debates. “They do everything so that the socialists cannot claim a single gain. So they burn everything, they damage everything”he laments, referring to the vote against the suspension of the pension reform of LFI deputies in the Social Affairs Committee.

In the hemicycle, this should also be the case. “Voting for the suspension means accepting the principle of raising the legal starting age to 64, there is no question of it”comments Damien Maudet, LFI deputy for Haute-Vienne. “Going to collect crumbs is not a political victory. We are not here to ask for alms,” abounds the rebel from the North Aurélien Lecoq, for whom “this suspension of the pension reform consists of offering a watch to the right wrist at the same time as cutting off the left arm”.

These divergences in strategies are not new. Elisabeth Borne’s pension reform, like the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas against Israel, brought the Nupes, then the New Popular Front (NFP), to the brink of rupture, but did not prevent it from finding an alliance for the legislative elections in the summer of 2024, organized after the dissolution ordered by Emmanuel Macron. Do these budgetary debates mark a definitive divorce? “Before, with LFI, we had differences, but we knew that we were on the same side of the barricade. Now, they went to the other side”quips Philippe Brun, PS deputy for Eure. “In their narrative of intransigence, they need a traitor in the mirror”adds a PS deputy, thinking however “only a non-aggression pact” is still possible in future elections for outgoing MPs.

On the side of the rebels, we point out the isolation of the socialists and we predict, on the suspension of the pension reform, a vote against from the communist group and an abstention from the environmentalist group. “In the end, the socialists will be the only ones on the left to vote for the suspension”launches an LFI deputy. The other NFP formations do not deny this wish of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s troops. “Left-wing groups are not the brush cars of socialist negotiations”, scolds an environmentalist MP.

“Everyone is playing their position for the 2027 presidential electionestimates a member of the government. LFI consolidates a radical left and the PS takes the path of Raphaël Glucksmann, hoping that it will lead to something. Every day that passes makes it more difficult for them to go back.” Wednesday evening’s episode appears to be a repetition of that of November 12, where the hemicycle will examine article 45 bis which provides for the suspension of the pension reform. The left could once again publicly display its divisions.