The initiative of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) to remove Emmanuel Macron from the presidency overcame its first obstacle on Tuesday. The Council of the National Assembly, the highest collegiate body of the institution, approved admission to the impeachment procedure, with the favorable vote of the ecologist, communist and socialist representatives. The latter had publicly declared their reservations about the relevance and viability of this procedure, but finally announced on Monday evening that they would not hinder the first stage of its processing.
Since mid-August, LFI has been threatening Macron with impeachment proceedings if he persists in his refusal to appoint Lucie Castets, candidate for the post of Prime Minister of the New Popular Front (NFP), the coalition that brings together the left and won the legislative elections. But the proposal has little chance of success: it is a procedure regulated by an organic law, which has never prospered until now and which requires the vote of a two-thirds majority in the two chambers of Parliament constituted as the High Court.
Under what conditions can the president be removed from office in France?
Article 68 of the French Constitution states that the head of state may only be dismissed from office “in the event of a breach of his duties that is manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate.” An ambiguous definition that opens the door for deputies and senators to study and decide when the conditions for doing so are met. In any case, dismissal has political consequences, but not legal ones.
Who can initiate impeachment proceedings?
Parliamentarians who wish to use this constitutional provision must draft a motion for a resolution in which they set out “the reasons which may characterise a failure to comply with the provisions established in the first paragraph of Article 68 of the Constitution”.
Then, they must collect the signatures of at least one tenth of the members of their chamber (58 deputies or 35 senators) to start the process. The LFI group, which has 72 deputies in the lower house and has also affixed the signatures of some deputies from other parties, had no problem meeting this requirement. The table of the corresponding chamber – in this case, the National Assembly – checks that the proposed resolution is admissible, as it did this Tuesday.
What do the other left-wing parties say?
A few hours earlier, it was not certain that the LFI proposal would get through this stage, despite the fact that the New Popular Front has a majority on the board of directors of the National Assembly. Since it was raised by the members of Francia Insumisa, the rest of the parties in the alliance have distanced themselves from the initiative. But none of them have wanted to block, for the moment, the procedure initiated by the rebels. “This is not the line, nor the priority of the ecologists. Is it serious that they presented it? No. Is this our position? No either,” summarized Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the ecologists, in an interview with the BFM-TV channel a few weeks ago.
In the case of the Socialists, the decision was taken at the end of a meeting held on Monday afternoon. “The Bureau of the National Assembly must not assume the role of judge of the political relevance of this initiative,” justified the deputies of the Socialist group in a press release. “This resolution was signed by more than a tenth of the members of the Assembly and is reasoned, our representatives in the Council of the National Assembly will vote in favor of its admissibility.” However, the Socialists have already warned that they would vote against the dismissal of Macron if it led to a public session in the chamber.
What steps should you take next?
LFI’s proposal has little chance of success. First of all, on a procedural level: the next step involves a new vote in the Law Commission, which must also issue a legal opinion. This parliamentary institution is chaired by Florent Boudié, a member of parliament for Renaissance (the party founded by Emmanuel Macron) who will certainly oppose the measure and who could refuse to include it on the agenda.
In the event that the impeachment process manages to leave the Law Commission, it should be read and voted on in session in the Assembly. The procedure is limited to a vote after a single reading in each chamber, all within 15 days. Failure to obtain two-thirds represents the end of the process. If it is approved in the Assembly, it will be sent to the Senate where it will follow the same path. Currently, the Gaullist right is in the majority in the Upper House, where France Insoumise has no seats.
How would the dismissal be voted on?
Article 68 states that if two-thirds of each house votes on the resolution, then the “Parliament, constituted as a High Court” should then be convened. In other words, all deputies and senators would hold a joint session with individual votes, similar to the Congress convened for constitutional reforms.
Before this vote, 11 deputies and 11 senators are designated by the tables of their respective chambers to form the table of the High Court and “organize the work” and the investigations necessary for the preparation of a report presented to the parliamentarians.
At the end of the debates, which are public, the High Court can vote to dismiss the head of state. In this case too, a two-thirds majority of the votes is required, or 617 of the 925 parliamentarians.
