2023-10-04 12:50:09
We are facing “a democratic malaise”, “undoubtedly not devoid of links with our institutions and their practice”, affirmed Wednesday, October 4, the president of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius, in the preamble to the speech of the head of the State. On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, Emmanuel Macron has indeed mentioned avenues for revising the text governing state institutions.
Sweeping away the idea of a transition towards a Sixth Republic, sometimes requested on the left with the intention of limiting the powers of the executive and giving more weight to citizens, the head of state affirmed that we ” do not revise the Constitution under the influence of emotion. However, preserving it “is not freezing it,” assured Emmanuel Macron. L’Express takes stock of the announcements.
Extension of the referendum
Among the main announcements, the Head of State wants a “simplification” of the use of the shared initiative referendum and the broadening of article 11 of the Constitution, which sets the fields of application of the referendum, a measure requested by several political forces. He affirmed that he wanted to “complete” this enlargement “project”, without mentioning by name the debate on the theme of immigration. But he also warned that such an extension should not “allow one to escape the rules of the rule of law”, nor the “intangibility of the right of asylum” – as a response to the right and the extreme right who would like to free themselves from European law on migration matters.
Use of RIP
To the attention of the left, the Head of State recognized that the implementation of the shared initiative referendum (RIP) should “be simpler” with thresholds allowing its use which “should be reviewed”. Currently, you need the support of a fifth of parliamentarians and a tenth of voters, or around 4.7 million French people, to hope to see a question submitted to a referendum.
Created in 2008, the RIP depends on conditions so restrictive that it has not been able to be implemented until now, particularly against pension reform. But the President of the Republic reiterated his commitment that the repeal of a recent law remains impossible.
Status of New Caledonia and Corsica
The President of the Republic also indicated that he wanted to “rethink” the territorial architecture and open “a new stage of decentralization”. Referring to the subject of New Caledonia, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the archipelago would be the subject of a “constitutional revision for sure”. As for Corsica, “its singularity opens the way to a form of autonomy in the Republic”, announced the head of state. “Indivisible does not mean uniform […] our unity will only be stronger. All overseas territories must also be better taken into account,” he added.
Constitutionalization of abortion
President Emmanuel Macron also hoped that the right to abortion would be included in the Constitution “as soon as possible”. “I expressed my wish, on March 8, that we could find a text agreeing the points of view between the National Assembly and the Senate and allowing a Congress to be convened in Versailles,” underlined the Head of State .
The question of including the right to abortion in the Constitution resurfaced in 2022 after the annulment of the ruling guaranteeing the United States the right to abortion throughout the country. Demanded by feminist associations and the left, it was taken up in March by the head of state who promised to include “the freedom” to resort to abortion in a “bill revising our constitution “.
“Not exhaustive”
This agenda of targeted constitutional revisions is however not exhaustive, agreed Emmanuel Macron. Among the other subjects raised: the idea of including climate protection in the Constitution, but also to soon discuss the question of “the independence of the prosecution and the improvement of the legislative procedure”, if “a majority is possible”. “The Republic must be capable of answering the questions of its destiny,” concluded Emmanuel Macron.
In France, any revision of the Constitution must be voted on by both houses of Parliament before being adopted by three-fifths of parliamentarians or by referendum. However, the political equation is complex for the executive which does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly.
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