Dor several weeks, we have been put in the school of the Constitution that all French citizens are supposed, of course, to know. We discovered, learned, revised the happiness of articles 49.3, 47.1, 44.2, 44.3. And, for those who have had the courage to follow the parliamentary debates, the interlacing of the regulations of the National Assembly. You are now going to discover and love Title VII of our Basic Law, therefore Articles 56 to 63, and more particularly Articles 56 and 61.
The Constitutional Council is an assembly of sages or rather of elders as we say in Switzerland. The oldest (Alain Juppé) is 77 years old, and the youngest (Véronique Malbec) 64 years old. They were appointed for the most part between 2019 and 2022. Five of them are politicians: Laurent Fabius and Alain Juppé had very famous careers during the Ve Republic, Jacques Mézard and Jacqueline Gourault were Macronist ministers, François Pillet was a senator and mayor. The other four have senior civil servant profiles.
Among the nine members, all except Jacqueline Gourault have had advanced or general legal training (there are four énarques). Should we approach their presumed political tendencies based on their trajectories and their appointments? This would range from an evanescent left (Laurent Fabius) to various shades of centrism (three of these members were appointed by Gérard Larcher).
We know that the Constitutional Council has always been questioned about its composition (in addition to age and social and professional trajectories), but above all on the political side: a supreme magistracy responsible for stating the law even though its members hold their appointment as political authorities. Admittedly, the appointing authority cannot appoint without control, but only a vote of three-fifths of the constitutional law committees of each Assembly prevents the appointment of the candidate approached by the appointing authority (namely, the president of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the President of the Assembly).
Many solutions
What can we expect from the Constitutional Council in the current political situation? In principle, and this is constantly repeated to affirm the legitimacy of the institution and erase any suspicion of political bias, the Constitutional Council is the guarantor of the rule of law, and judges in law, that’s all. Today, probably more than in any past situation, the Constitutional Council will have to assume an explosive political charge. One wonders what has happened in recent weeks and what is happening right now in the Parisian corridors of the Montpensier wing of the Palais-Royal, where he sits.
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