why the vote is public

The Constitution of the V^e Republic, which responds to all cases, provides that the votes of motions of censure in the Assembly are not secret.

By Sébastien Schneegans

The motion of censure tabled by Liot has little chance of being adopted in the National Assembly this Monday, March 20.
© Fred Dugit / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/LE PARISIEN/MAXPPP

Published on 03/20/2023 at 11:53 am

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CThis time, the Republican deputies will not be able to “hide”. While the use of 49.3 on Thursday to have the pension reform adopted offered LR elected officials the luxury of not having to count themselves, their positions will be known this afternoon, when the two motions of censure tabled by the National Rally and the Liot group will be voted on. The Constitution of the V^e Republic provides for the vote to take place “by public ballot”. This is due to a simple reason: in the spirit of the Constitution, paragraph 3 of article 49 constitutes the main means of control of the government by the national representation.

It makes it possible to respond to the government’s commitment to responsibility for a bill – which allows this text to be passed without a vote, unless the motion of censure provoked is adopted – by threatening the government with censure. That a motion of censure provoked be voted by a majority of deputies has never happened since 1958. The only one that passed, in 1962, was a so-called spontaneous or offensive motion; this is provided for by another provision of the Constitution, article 49 paragraph 2.

READ ALSOMotion of censorship: how Liot and the left try to seduce the rightWill we know the votes of all the deputies? No, only “for” votes are counted. “Only the votes in favor of the motion of censure are counted, which can only be adopted by a majority of the members composing the Assembly”, is it written in the Constitution. The vote “against” is therefore impossible and an abstention is equivalent to support for the government. As a reminder, the motion of censure must obtain an absolute majority of votes in the National Assembly – 287 today – to be adopted. The text deemed adopted is therefore no longer so and the Prime Minister must submit her resignation to the President of the Republic, in accordance with Article 50 of the Constitution.

READ ALSOCoignard – Motions of censure: the decadence of public debate