Macron pitches constitutional review despite long and difficult process

French President Emmanuel Macron pitched his bid to revise the constitution to extend and simplify the use of referendums on Wednesday and reiterated his goal of securing a constitutional right to abortion despite needing backing from other parties to make his pitch a reality.

Macron made his intentions clear during a speech commemorating the 65th anniversary of the French Constitution on Wednesday.

The proposed reforms “will also make it possible to respond to the democratic aspirations of our time”, Macron said on Wednesday.

“The scope of referendums must be opened up”, he added, saying this would “enable citizens to be more involved and more closely associated” with decision-making.

Article 11 of the Constitution only allows referendums on “the organisation of public authorities, reforms relating to the economic or social policy of the Nation and the public services contributing to it” – something Macron aims to extend to other issues.

However, “widening the scope of the referendum must not allow us […] to evade the rules of the rule of law,” Macron warned as the right and the far right recently said they want to open the referendum to issues related to immigration to free themselves from the EU rules that govern it.

In his speech, the president also said he was in favour of simplifying the use of the “joint initiative referendum” (RIP), which is considered too restrictive in its current form. Under the current rules, a petition can only be considered by parliament if it is signed by one-tenth of the electorate, corresponding to around 4.9 million signatures.

Created in 2008, this procedure has never been used due to the complexity of its implementation. The Left has been particularly keen to make the procedure more flexible.

Political consensus needed

However, it remains uncertain whether Macron’s bid for a constitutional review will go through, as the process is lengthy and requires large majorities.

“We need to find a way to unite the political forces across the usual divides”, the Élysée said on Tuesday.

Indeed, the revised bill must first be adopted in the same terms by the two chambers of the French parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate. In the former, the president has only a relative majority, while in the latter, the right has a majority.

If Macron convinces enough lawmakers, the text will have to be voted on by three out of five lawmakers in Congress, including deputies and senators who meet at the Palace of Versailles to vote on constitutional amendments. Alternatively, it can be approved directly by the French people in a referendum.

Enshrining the right to abortion ‘as soon as possible’

“The freedom of women to have recourse to voluntary interruption of pregnancy” should also be included in the Constitution, Macron said, about an issue on which there is now relative consensus.

In the National Assembly, MPs voted unanimously to enshrine the right to abortion in the Constitution, despite the abstention of the conservative Catholic section of the far right.

However, while the National Assembly favours the “right” to abortion in the Constitution, the Senate wanted to affirm women’s “freedom” to have recourse to it.

Aware of this political and legal nuance, Macron wants “a text that reconciles the positions of the National Assembly and the Senate” and is therefore calling for “this work of reconciling points of view to be resumed and completed as soon as possible”.

Macron and party leaders will further discuss the proposed revision of the Constitution at a meeting on 30 October.

(Davide Basso | Euractiv.fr)