IInterviewed in the middle of summer as part of the latest Ipsos electoral survey for The Worldthe Jean Jaurès Foundation, the Sciences Po political research center and the Montaigne Institute, carried out from July 26 to 1is August, the French people surveyed are very divided on the possibility of Emmanuel Macron resigning in the context of the current political crisis: 51% are in favor, 49% are not in favor.
Read the survey | Article reserved for our subscribers Politicians face widespread distrust from the electorate
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And yet, this demand for resignation is in the air and some are demanding it loudly: La France Insoumise and Jean-Luc Mélenchon have even announced the implementation of an impeachment procedure; at the end of June, Marine Le Pen estimated that the President of the Republic would only have “resignation to potentially get out of a political crisis”…
However, nothing forces the head of state to resign: the length of his mandate takes him until its end, in 2027 and, if his camp is the loser of the last legislative elections, he has the possibility of cohabiting with a new majority which, for the moment, has not managed to emerge and offers him a respite of time which he tends to abuse.
Important legion
In any case, on the voters’ side, despite the unpopularity of the host of the Elysée (53% of those polled are not satisfied with his actions as President of the Republic, 15% are satisfied, 32% are neither), there is no irresistible demand for resignation. Under the Ve Republic, never has a president – even one affected by record unpopularity – resigned under pressure from the streets or from newsrooms.
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Only General de Gaulle had chosen to resign following the no vote in the referendum, which he had proposed to the French on 27 April 1969, on the reform of regionalisation and the Senate. The plebiscitary reading he had of the referendum had pushed him to take this decision. In 2024, the situation is very different: the legislative elections do not have the dimension of a “question of confidence” that the referendum can have, they are not strictly speaking “national elections” insofar as the French voted for candidates in 577 constituencies and not within the framework of a national constituency.
Neither François Mitterrand in 1986 or 1993, nor Jacques Chirac in 1997 considered resigning after legislative elections lost by their camp. In 2024, the defeat of the presidential camp is even much less severe than the defeat of the socialist camp in 1993: the Socialist Party had only managed to obtain a meager group of 57 deputies, the Communist Party preserving 23; this time, Renaissance obtained 99 deputies and its allies from the MoDem and Horizons respectively 36 and 31. It is therefore understandable that the electorate is divided on the prospect of a resignation of the President of the Republic. However, the supporters of a resignation-sanction constitute a large legion who have a pressing desire to turn the page on Macronism.
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