Even if the impeachment motion passes the first stage, its final adoption seems unlikely given the balance of power.
“Acceptability” of the resolution on impeachment of French President Emmanuel Macron, initiated by the LFI (La France insoumise – “Rebellious France”) party from the left-wing bloc “New Popular Front” (NPF), will be considered on Tuesday morning in the National Assembly (lower house of the French parliament), where the left is in the majority and is under pressure from the LFI.
Le Progres writes about this.
The apparatus of the National Assembly, its highest executive body, will consider the “acceptability of the proposal” presented on September 4 by the party newspaper LFI.
The motion to initiate impeachment proceedings was supported by 81 members of the National Assembly, including 72 LFI deputies, as well as 9 elected representatives from the Greens, the Communists, and the Left Democrats and Republicans group.
The procedure for removing the President of the Republic from office is regulated by Article 68 of the French Constitution, which states that the head of state can only be removed from office “in the event of failure to fulfill his duties, which is clearly incompatible with the exercise of his powers.” The LFI text, in particular, states that Emmanuel Macron's refusal to appoint Lucie Castet, a candidate from the New Popular Front, as Prime Minister constitutes “a serious breach of the duty to respect the will of the people, expressed by universal suffrage.”
If the impeachment motion is found to be unconstitutional, the process will stop there. If the Assembly considers that the necessary conditions are met, the resolution will continue its way through parliament.
“This is in fact a decisive step for the LFI, which will serve as a test. Because its members constitute the majority in the National Assembly apparatus: the NNF actually has 12 seats out of 22, which is enough to pass this first stage, provided that not a single vote is lost,” the newspaper notes.
On Monday, it was the head of the LFI faction, Mathilde Panaud, who called on her Socialist colleagues not to oppose the National Assembly's consideration of the procedure for Emmanuel Macron's resignation in the name of “democratic debate” and “popular sovereignty.”
“It is not a question of voting for or against the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron, but of the acceptability of the procedure or against it… A vote for it would allow parliament to debate the president's behavior. A vote against it would prevent this debate, which is good for democracy,” emphasized Mathilde Panaud.
She called Emmanuel Macron a “blocking point” and the reason for the lack of “good democratic functioning of institutions”
The French Socialist Party deputies decided on Monday, September 16, to vote in favor of considering the impeachment motion, but then they are going to fail to pass it in the Assembly. They believe that impeachment is “doomed to fail” but could give a kind of “legitimacy” to the President of the Republic.
If the LFI initiative is given the green light on Tuesday, the text of the resolution will be submitted to the Legal Commission, where the NNF does not have a majority. A vote should then be organized in the Assembly hall.
Even if the text, signed by 81 deputies after the president refused to appoint Lucie Castet as prime minister, passes the first stage normally, its final adoption seems unlikely given the balance of power. Then it will require a two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament. If the resolution does receive the necessary majority, both houses of parliament will have a month to jointly decide on the resignation of the head of state. However, throughout history, this procedure has never been successful.
Recall that Macron appointed the oldest prime minister in the history of modern France. 73-year-old conservative politician Michel Barnier represents the center-right party Les Républicains.
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