In an interview with French dailies La Provence and La Tribune Dimanche published on Saturday, May 4, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the issue of France's political institutions, reiterating that introducing "a proportional component" to legislative elections "would be good for democracy."
It's a subject that divides his camp, casting doubt on its implementation. Is there any chance it could be adopted? "If there's a majority in favor of introducing proportional representation, yes. That's the commitment I've made. I think it would be good for democracy," said Macron.
In 2017, Macron promised to introduce a "dose of proportionality" in legislative elections. During the 2022 campaign, the president once again said he was in favor of proportional representation, even opening the door to full proportional representation, with the number of seats proportional to the total number of votes obtained.
The president of the Assemblée Nationale, Yaël Braun-Pivet, is in favor of a proportional system and has begun consultations on the subject. But the presidential camp is divided on the issue. The leader of Macron's Renaissance MPs, Sylvain Maillard, is against it, as is the minister for relations with parliament, Marie Lebec. MoDem (Mouvement Démocrate) allies have long advocated in favor of this voting system.
Macron also spoke of France's limit on the number of successive presidential terms to two. This rule "is there and I'm not going to change the Constitution," he told the French newspapers, but, "if you ask me my personal opinion: I think it's always better when you leave the choice to the voters," he said.
"I'm not necessarily telling you that I would have liked to run for a third term," but "when you put prohibitions in the law, you are in a way capturing a part of the freedom of the voters, who are sovereign."
The president also shared some regrets after seven years in power. "I would have liked to have carried out the point-based pension reform promised for the first presidential term. The gilets jaunes (Yellow Vests) crisis and then Covid prevented us from doing so," he said. "It was more difficult to carry out than the one we did last year [raising the statutory retirement age to 64] because it was a more fundamental reform of the system. I think it's an element that would have changed things profoundly."
Macron would "also have liked to see through to completion the institutional reform halted in 2018," hit by the Benalla affair, referring to multiple political and judicial cases involving Alexandre Benalla, who served as deputy chief of staff to Macron. This included reducing the number of members of parliament and introducing a level of proportional representation.
Asked about the relative majority situation that has prevailed in the Assemblée since 2022, Macron said he believed it has "not prevented us from making reforms," even if it may have "blurred things because parliamentary debate is diluted by political considerations." "But it's up to us to clarify," he said. The French wanted "something more akin to a proportional system" and that "forces us to find compromises," he added.
And if by any chance a vote of no confidence were to be passed, as the oppositions threaten, Macron would opt for the political and institutional consequences that would "depend on the circumstances," he said.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.