La Ve Republic is 64 years old. Retirement age? It must be admitted that, since 1958, the Constitution has changed a lot: the president was elected by a restricted college, he is now elected by the people; he was elected for seven years, he is now elected for five years with a mandate renewable only once; the organization of the Republic was centralized, since 2003 it has been decentralized; the Parliament met in two sessions of three months, it sits today in a single continuous session; the currency of France was the franc, today it is the euro.
It must also be admitted that, since 1958, the Constitution has endured many “turbulences”: the war in Algeria, May 68, the departure of General de Gaulle, the arrival of the left in power, the return of the right, cohabitation. Finally, it must be admitted that, since 1958, the partisan landscape has changed considerably: the Communist Party won 27% of the vote, today it has 3%; the National Front obtained 2% of the votes, which became the National Rally, it now has 25%; the ecologists had no electoral existence, they are today around 12%.
And, for thirty years, the Constitution has been revised ten times: in 1992 to allow the changeover to the euro, in 1993 to modify the Superior Council of the Judiciary and the definition of the right of asylum, in 1995 to broaden the scope of the referendum and restore the single parliamentary session, in 1996 to create the laws for financing Social Security, in 1999 to authorize the ratification of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Treaty of Rome relating to the International Criminal Court and to promote equal access of women to political offices, in 2000 to establish the five-year term, in 2008 to introduce, in particular, the priority question of constitutionality. That’s enough ! You have to stop the DIY.
A Constitution is, for a country, the equivalent of an identity card for a person. However, this “constitutional map” is now out of date. It no longer says anything about the identity of France: national or European? unitary or decentralized? presidential or governmental? The time has undoubtedly come to put things back on track and rebuild a coherent, clear and stable constitutional whole. In short, to change the Constitution.
Collect citizens’ proposals
How ? The immediate response is that of the meeting of a constituent assembly. But experience and history show that constituent assemblies are always convened after a crisis (geopolitical, military, political) and that they are never convened “cold”. For example, a constituent assembly was convened in Greece, Spain and Portugal after the fall of dictatorships; in the countries of Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet dictatorships and, more recently, in Tunisia after the overthrow of Ben Ali, as in Egypt after the departure of Mubarak. French constitutional history also shows that a constituent assembly emerged after a political crisis (1789, 1830, 1848, 1958) or a military defeat (1814, 1870).
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