“Mr Macron, stop your circus with Mercosur. We demand that this treaty be discussed in the National Assembly and that it not apply if the French do not vote for it,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged the President of the Republic, during an interview on France3 . The group of Insoumis deputies had planned the examination in its parliamentary slot on November 28 of a proposed resolution inviting the government to refuse this treaty.
The government deemed it inadmissible on November 5, just as a similar resolution proposal from the RN group had been deemed inadmissible at the beginning of October. The president of the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Aurélie Trouvé (LFI), announced Saturday on Franceinfo that her group was going to table a new proposed resolution to request the organization of a debate, under the article 50-1 of the Constitution, so that “the National Assembly can decide against this agreement”. This proposal will be finalized on Monday, she said.
The former leader of Attac strongly criticized the attitude of the head of state, judging that “if the agreement is signed, the first person responsible will be President Macron who, for years and years, let these negotiations take place » and “led to believe that a good treaty would be possible”. Aurélie Trouvé also estimated that France was slow to try to organize the revolt at the European level against this text. “It might be time to actually organize a blocking minority,” she said.
“The issue goes beyond the simple borders of French agriculture”
It is “probably late”, but not necessarily “too late”, to block “the commercial part” of the agreement, PS MP and former President of the Republic François Hollande also estimated on Radio J. To do this, at least four EU member states, representing at least 35% of the EU population, must oppose it, he recalled.
For her part, LFI MEP Manon Aubry sent Ursula Von Der Leyen an open letter signed according to her by more than 130 parliamentarians from 13 countries, calling on the President of the European Commission to renounce the conclusion of the treaty. “This is the first time that a transnational appeal has been published, demonstrating that the issue goes beyond the simple borders of French agriculture,” she underlined. The missive, published by the newspaper La Tribune on Sunday, also denounces the Commission's alleged plan to split the agreement in two “to circumvent the ratification of national parliaments”.
