François Hollande put aside the grudges of the past before going on Friday, February 3, to the Elysée. For the third time since 2017, the former president responded, accepting a one-on-one lunch with Emmanuel Macron. “The embarrassment is not on my side”, confided, a few weeks ago, the socialist, evoking his rare asides with the one who was his deputy secretary general and his minister of the economy. The page is – almost – turned.
From this presidential exchange of more than two and a half hours, little has filtered. Apart from the fact that the agenda desired by Emmanuel Macron has been widely discussed, that of the institutions of the Ve Republic. François Hollande had ideas to suggest to the current president, such as removing the prime minister, which he discusses in his book Responding to the democratic crisis (Fayard, 2019).
Emmanuel Macron may have heard it. After having failed twice, during his first term, to carry out an institutional reform supposed to provide a response to the democratic malaise, the tenant of the Elysée wants to show that the subject, included in his program, was not forget. “I think that the reform we need must restore popular sovereignty”, he confided to a handful of editorialists in mid-January. Adding: “You have to give yourself the ambition to do something big, otherwise I’m not in for it. »
Consultations
The message is clear. The project should not be reduced to a simple grooming of the Constitution. But at a time when the street and the Assembly are on fire over pension reform, is it appropriate to embark on an institutional big bang? A change of the Constitution requires to be approved by the two chambers in identical vote, then by a three-fifths majority of the votes cast by the entire Parliament meeting in Congress. “Unreachable”, slice Bruno Retailleau, president of the group Les Républicains in the Senate. As for the option of a referendum, after the vote of the two chambers, “it is likely that the French are more interested in the author of the question than in the question asked”, emphasizes the senator from Vendée.
Despite these obstacles, Macronie is rushing forward. “After the retreats, we will have to reform our institutions”announced in an interview with Figaro January 12, Stéphane Séjourné, general secretary of the Renaissance presidential party. The same day, Emmanuel Macron brought together the presidents of the majority law commission to open the site.
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