Since the start of his first five-year term, Emmanuel Macron has on several occasions opened up the possibility of consulting the French through a referendum. Without going through with the process.
No longer called upon to decide by referendum since 2005 and the victory of the no to the treaty of the European Constitution, will the French be consulted again twenty years later?
The question arises this Wednesday, January 1, the day after the wishes of Emmanuel Macron, who announced his intention to consult citizens to “decide” on certain “determining issues”. Enough to leave the door open to referendums, according to those around him, who also cites the hypothesis of new citizen consultations, after those on end of life and ecology.
If the President of the Republic has already mentioned this possibility in the past, he has never followed through with the process. BFMTV.com looks at several examples.
• Institutional reform
Emmanuel Macron already had the temptation of a referendum in mind in 2017, as he explained before the Versailles Congress in July: “If it is necessary, I will resort to the vote of our fellow citizens by way of referendum”. First desire, an in-depth reform of the functioning of institutions, in a desire to bring citizens closer to the State.
But the reform of institutions through the voice of the people is above all an idea anchored by very strong tensions at the height of the yellow vest crisis. Taking into account the blank vote, number of deputies and senators, “organization of the State”… The presidential camp was already at the time open to a reform in the broad sense of institutions through this means, as explained by the JDD.
At the time, the social movement sought to bring about several major citizen reforms, notably the abolition of the Senate for example.
• The Climate Convention
On December 14, 2020, it was the fight for the Climate that Emmanuel Macron wanted to include in the Constitution through the referendum. A desire to “introduce the notions of biodiversity, the environment, the fight against global warming” in article 1 of the Constitution, an idea coming from the Citizens’ Convention for the Climate.
Ultimately, this idea was never realized. It was in July 2021 that Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the abandonment of the project, explaining that the “outstretched hand in favor of climate protection was not seized by the Senate”, his progress with a view to a constitutional revision therefore stopped short.
• Pension reform
You would have to be very playful to bet on a referendum concerning the latest pension reform, which was largely rejected by public opinion.
However, during the 2022 presidential election, Emmanuel Macron opened the door to a consultation of the French on this subject. “I do not exclude the referendum, for any reform whatsoever,” declared the President of the Republic, then a candidate for re-election, they have micro from BFMTV.
At the time, he aimed to eventually raise the legal retirement age to 65, a parameter ultimately set at 64 in the current law.
• The Saint-Denis meetings and the hypothesis of a referendum on immigration
The “Saint-Denis meetings”? This is the name of the “major political initiative”, set to music in the summer of 2023 by Emmanuel Macron who is then seeking to relaunch his second five-year term, already tested by a year under a relative majority.
The president wants to overcome the blockages. On August 30, he gathered around him the different political forces with a group in the National Assembly or the Senate. In an interview with Le Point, he gave the oppositions food for thought, explaining that this joint work could lead to “immediate decisions, projects and proposed laws” and especially “referendum projects”.
Each comes with its referendum proposal: the left is pushing for a French vote on pensionsWhen the right and its extreme do the same on immigration – which amounts to broadening the scope of the referendum, a possibility to which the president is open.
Both will ultimately leave empty-handed. The first option was ruled out from the outset, while the second was also ruled out following a second meeting on this format in November, due to lack of consensus on the subject.
• The thawing of the electorate in New Caledonia
May 2024. Riots take place in New Caledonia after the National Assembly voted for the bill to end the freeze on the electorate being able to vote in provincial elections. The reform is particularly denounced by the Kanaks who fear that their influence will be diluted.
After declaring a state of emergency, Emmanuel Macron went to the archipelago to find a way through. While the dialogue is at a standstill between New Caledonian elected officials, the president says he hopes for “a global agreement which would enrich the text already voted by Parliament”.
If the two chambers must still meet in Congress – where a majority for the reform is far from assured – Emmanuel Macron affirms in Le Parisien that he can “go to the referendum at any time, since there is a conforming vote of the two assemblies”. Way to put pressure on the elected officials of Caillou so that they reach a consensus.
The bill will finally be buried by Michel Barnier during his general policy declaration on October 1st.
Baptiste Farge and Tom Kerkour
