2023-04-24 12:00:35
Lhe hundredth use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution precipitated France into a deep political crisis, if not a crisis of the regime. The use of this device from another age, which jars with national representation and reflects a form of contempt for the French people, is still perceived as an abuse of power by the executive and contributes to making our fellow citizens doubt the capacity for effective action of their representatives. What makes it particularly unbearable today is its use by a weakened executive.
Emmanuel Macron, re-elected in 2022 against Marine Le Pen (National Rally), was immediately deprived of an absolute majority in the National Assembly, and the government he appointed was not even able to ask the question of confidence. Worse, the Head of State poses as the chief of a relative majority and does not endorse the costume of the guarantor of the institutions and the unifier of the French. Suffering from an image that is now terribly damaged in public opinion, it actually weakens the presidential function and jeopardizes the entire institutional structure.
No one can say with certainty whether the tipping point has already been reached. The current situation, on the other hand, puts in stark light what we have known for too long: our Constitution leans recklessly on the side of the executive. Also let us remember this doctrine enacted by Montesquieu in Of the spirit of Laws published in 1748: “So that power cannot be abused, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power stops power. » It is in this spirit that we must operate a certain number of rebalancing within our institutions.
Abstention et frustration
First of all in favor of Parliament. In addition to the repeal of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, I am thinking of the introduction of proportional representation for the election of deputies. Indeed, the majority ballot in two rounds, over 577 constituencies, creates a huge distortion between the votes cast and the seats obtained. This voting method results in the over-representation of a small number of parties and the erasure of a large number of political colors. Its undesirable effects are well known: it forces the voter to “useful votes” to the detriment of “votes of conviction”; it produces abstention and generates frustration. Conversely, full proportional representation is the best way to encourage cross-partisan deliberation, to guarantee the fair representation of all sensitivities and to achieve, in fine, gender parity.
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