Faced with the “government of judges”, the ambiguities of the National Rally

2023-04-18 21:11:39

Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, at the launch of the executive school at the Maison de la chimie in Paris, March 21, 2023. CYRIL BITTON/DIVERGENCE FOR “THE WORLD”

This is a new example of Marine Le Pen’s desire to institutionalize: after the validation of the Constitutional Council concerning the pension reform, the leader of the National Rally remained sober as a presidential candidate. No criticism of the body, in the six paragraphs of its press release published after the announcement – ​​very far from Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise), vilify an institution « plus watch out[ve] to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people”. Marine Le Pen has only issued one reservation, relating to their mode of designation: ” It is not immutable. The Constitutional Council is, the way its members are appointed is not. »

Without appearing to do so, Marine Le Pen has just made a shift in the history of the far-right party, by appealing to the Constitutional Council and then its acceptance. Criticism of the “government of judges”, embodied by the growing power of the Rue Montpensier court, has been a constant since the creation of the National Front. She herself used the expression during the 2017 campaign. At the time, she had entrusted her niece Marion Maréchal with a constitutional reform project, which planned to review her missions. “so that it remains in its original role, without becoming an American-style Supreme Court”remembers the former MP, now vice-president of the Reconquest! party. “By filing this appeal, the RN encourages him to be a judge of opportunity and not a judge of law. It thus feeds the drift of the government of judges ”believes Marion Maréchal.

This development is embodied in particular in the person of Hervé Fabre-Aubrespy, former technical adviser under right-wing governments, support for the RN since 2021, in particular on institutional issues. Mr. Fabre-Aubrespy, who contributed to the RN’s appeal, does not endorse the Council’s politicization trial, nor does he criticize its composition, although he considers that “its mode of designation could be broadened”.

Opposing two legitimacies

However, according to him, “the referendum route allows the adoption of a text that opposes the supreme jurisdiction, national as European”. In short: politicians must be able to appeal to the people to modify the rule of law. This is what Marine Le Pen’s presidential program provided for in 2022: a referendum allowing the Constitution to be modified by recourse to Article 11, a process used twice by General de Gaulle but deemed contrary to the supreme text by the constitutionalists. … and by the Council at the time, to no avail.

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