A mea culpa and an opening towards 2025. Emmanuel Macron made on December 31, during his televised wishes for 2025, his mea culpa on the dissolution of the National Assembly, which sowed “divisions” et “instability“, before calling “collective recovery” in the face of the serious political crisis it has caused.
Recorded in the winter garden of the presidential palace, these eighth wishes from Emmanuel Macron are also the shortest, at eleven minutes. Deprived of a large part of his influence, the head of state announced that he would ask the French in the new year to “slice” some “determining topics“to prepare for the future.
If the word “referendum” has not been pronounced, this is what the Head of State is thinking, confirms his entourage: not one, but “of the“referendums for 2025. A way of giving a glimpse of the votes mentioned, but never organized since his arrival at the Elysée in 2017, as well as new citizens' conventions, after those on the end of life or ecology.
And a way of “loosen the vice”underlines a faithful, as the exercise can prove dangerous for a President whose certain opponents, France insoumise and National Rally in the lead, are demanding the resignation. General De Gaulle himself, for example, paid the price: on April 27, 1969, the no vote won by 52.41% on a question on “the creation of regions and the renovation of the Senate”. A setback which led to the resignation of Charles de Gaulle, as he had announced in the event of failure.
We also remember that on several occasions in recent years, the Macronists have phosphoroused around the idea of a referendum with multiple questions, an institutional innovation which has the advantage of not making the ballot a vote of support or rejection. of the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron remains deliberately vague at this stage, but the message is clear: he reminds us that he still has levers.
Asking the French to decide could also consist of organizing new citizens' conventions, indicates the Elysée. A formula which, with the “great debate”, then allowed the head of state to emerge from the “yellow vest” crisis.
In both cases, where the Assembly appears too divided to decide, the President threatens to bypass it by directly appealing to the French. Way, for him, to put himself back at the center of the game. It is the surprise that his followers were waiting for, desperate to see him condemned to impotence.
Immediately, in opposition, many voices were raised. “In 2025, Macron discovers democracy. Everything happens!“, the national secretary of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, joked about X. “After stubbornly refusing the referendum on pension reform, Macron plans to consult the French. We have no shortage of ideas to submit to him“, he continued. “Let it start with the referendum on pensions“, reacted the environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau on franceinfo.
“Unfortunately, I fear that this is yet another announcement effect“, said for his part the MP RN Franck Allisio: “Recourse to the sovereign people is always a good thing“, said the MP, recalling that “Marine le Pen has often said that she wants a much more frequent use of referendums“However, according to him, “the president has never had recourse to a referendum for seven years and it is now that he finds himself in cohabitation that he will propose a referendum. But on what?“, term-t-il.
