a strong disappointment after a year of relative majority in the National Assembly

2023-10-09 18:00:20
Elisabeth Borne, and the president of the Renaissance group, Sylvain Maillard, at the National Assembly, September 27, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET / JULIEN MUGUET POUR “LE MONDE”

Since the Head of State announced that he wanted to revise the Constitution to facilitate the use of referendums and take into account the “democratic aspirations” of the French, the question of satisfaction with representative democracy is raised again. Will this be enough to restore trust between citizens and their representatives, as well as the legitimacy of their institutions? The new delivery of the “French Fractures” survey, carried out by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for The world, the Jean Jaurès Foundation, Cevipof and the Montaigne Institute, reports that 65% of those questioned consider the democratic regime irreplaceable. However, 69% of them believe that it works poorly, believing that their ideas are poorly represented.

Also read the analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers “French fractures”: a country where declinism, anger and attraction to the far right are on the rise

The debate on poor representation is not new, but it has taken a permanent confrontational turn since the legislative elections of 2022. The National Assembly has become the scene of an organized conflict, with some even going so far as to describe it as “bordelization” the parliamentary spectacle.

In fact, in the eyes of the French people interviewed in our survey, the functioning of Parliament is seriously deteriorating. There are now 43% (compared to 31% in 2022) who consider that democracy works less well in the presence of a relative majority, 10% who think the opposite and, finally, 47% without a clear opinion. Unsurprisingly, a fault line opposes the winners to the losers of this new balance of opposition parties. For example, supporters of La France insoumise (LFI) and Europe Ecologie-Les Verts are the first to consider that the system works better this way, since they have gained visibility in this legislature, while supporters of the Les Verts party Republicans (LR) display the strongest rejection.

The test of pension reform

If the French do not appreciate this relative majority in the Assembly, it is in particular because the culture of coalition government is absent from our recent political history. The majority situation, continuous since 1988, has considerably reduced the search for compromise. And it is not the past and future use of article 49.3 of the Constitution – allowing a text to be adopted without a vote – which will ease tensions. If compromise does not necessarily mean renunciation, the ordeal of pension reform today leads 60% of French people questioned to consider that the executive does not make enough concessions to oppositions (+ 5 points in one year).

You have 41.59% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.