© LAETITIA NOTARIANNIHans Lucas via AFP
– The left-wing alliance’s approach has almost no chance of success, as the impeachment procedure, governed by Article 68 of the Constitution, is restrictive.
The Bureau of the National Assembly is examining, this Tuesday, September 17, the admissibility of the proposal to impeach Emmanuel Macron, filed by La France insoumise (LFI) on September 4. The 81 deputies who signed it accuse the head of state of a “serious failure to respect the will expressed by universal suffrage”, by refusing to appoint Lucie Castets, candidate of the New Popular Front, to Matignon.
Behind the threat of LFI, there is above all a political move to put pressure on the head of state. Because the approach of the left alliance has almost no chance of succeeding, as the impeachment procedure, framed by article 68 of the Constitution, is restrictive. Only Parliament can impeach the President and on condition that this impeachment proposal is justified and signed by at least one tenth of the members of the chamber from which it comes (National Assembly or Senate). The deputies of the Socialist Party chose this Monday, September 16 to work so that a debate takes place in the Assembly on the impeachment of the President of the Republic, but will then vote “unanimously“against a procedure”doomed to failure“, noting its strategic divergence with LFI.
A procedure “doomed to failure”
The impeachment proposal must first be validated by the Bureau of the National Assembly, which ensures that the criteria set out in Article 68 are respected. This step must be taken today. To be impeached, the President of the Republic must be responsible for a “failure to perform his duties manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate“. By “failure” we mean “the political, but also private, behaviour of the President, provided that his actions have undermined the dignity of his office“, according to the website vie-publique.fr. This convoluted formula, which dates from the constitutional revision of 2007, succeeds the notion of the crime of “high treason”.
What is a motion of censure?
There is still a long way to go. If it is adopted by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly, the impeachment proposal is transmitted to the other chamber, the Senate, which must in turn adopt it by two-thirds. If both chambers adopt the impeachment motion, Parliament then meets in a High Court, an extraordinary session. The impeachment is pronounced, within a month, if it is voted by a two-thirds majority of the members of the High Court, or 617 parliamentarians out of 925. Which is not a given, as Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, points out on X, who made it known that his group would not associate itself with the approach proposed by LFI, judging the process “impracticable“.
LFI defends itself against a publicity stunt
In the history of the Fifth Republic, Article 68 has only been activated once, in 2016, when members of parliament from the Les Républicains party attempted to launch impeachment proceedings against François Hollande. This initiative followed revelations contained in the book A president should not say thatby Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, journalists at Worldin which François Hollande allegedly disclosed classified information. However, the impeachment proposal was rejected immediately after its examination by the bureau of the National Assembly.
Despite the low chances of success of its initiative, LFI denies attempting a political PR stunt.We are engaging in a power struggle with the President of the Republic himself since he is responsible for the chaos and the situation in which we find ourselves today.“, declared NFP-LFI MP Aurélie Trouvé, on BFM TV on August 19.
