With the appointment of Michel Barnier to the post of Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron linked the fate of the Presidency of the Republic to the survival of the Government.
There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Michel Barnier’s difficulties in forming a government and the way in which his final decision constitutes a real betrayal of the President of the Republic with regard to the electoral result. Early elections held to stop the far right ended up resulting in the most right-wing government under Macron’s presidency, despite the fact that the electoral result went in the opposite direction.
With the appointment of Michel Barnier to the post of Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron linked the fate of the Presidency of the Republic to the survival of the Government. The “cohabitation” formula had been the means of protecting the presidency against an opposing parliamentary majority. Both Mitterrand and Chirac understood that the parliamentary majority expressed during the legislative elections could not be ignored in the government formation process. An unfavorable parliamentary majority should not be interpreted as a motion of censure on the part of the President of the Republic, but neither can it be ignored during the formation of the Government.
By not following the example of Mitterrand and Chirac, Emmanuel Macron has launched an experiment that may not only affect him personally, but also affect the governing formula that was imposed not with the initial Constitution of the Fifth Republic, but with the constitutional reform through which the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage was decided.
The reform was carried out unconstitutionally, that is, the reform procedure provided for in the 1958 Constitution was not followed, but once implemented it gained enormous legitimacy. So much so that, although the reform was the subject of an appeal for unconstitutionality, the Constitutional Council considered that once approved by referendum, it would not be able to rule on the appeal filed against it. Since then, no one has questioned the legitimacy of the presidential majority in each of the elections held so far.
But this does not make the regime of the Fifth Republic a presidential regime. This is de facto when the presidential majority and the parliamentary majority coincide, but this is not the case. de jure. Thus, when the two majorities do not coincide, it is the parliamentary majority which prevails for the appointment of the Prime Minister. Hence cohabitation.
On the European continent, parliamentary legitimacy is the determining factor in qualifying a regime as democratic. Even when the President of the Republic is elected by universal suffrage. It is not presidential legitimacy that qualifies the regime as democratic, but parliamentary legitimacy.
This is what Emmanuel Macron ignored by appointing Miche Barnier as Prime Minister. He thus modified the rules of the game. He inseparably mixes presidential legitimacy and parliamentary legitimacy, which the Constitution does not envisage.
Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint Michel Barnier is a case of what is described as a “constitutional mutation” in the General Theory of the Constitution. The Constitution is amended without reforming its text. The Fifth Republic that Emmanuel Macron launched with the appointment of Michel Barnier is different from all previous forms of expression. General De Gaulle made an unconstitutional constitutional reform, but a constitutional change. Emmanuel Macron has made a change and not a reform.
Until now, demanding political accountability from the Prime Minister through a motion of no confidence did not imply a demand for political accountability from the President. The Presidency of the Republic and the Presidency of the Government were not communicating vessels, but rather watertight compartments. Now they are no longer. Emmanuel Macron linked his political career to that of Michel Barnier.
If in the three years remaining before the next presidential elections Michel Barnier manages to remain Prime Minister, it is possible that the regime of the Fifth Republic will be maintained. Otherwise, it is more than likely that France will be faced with a constituent problem.
