Widely expected in the last few days, President Emmanuel Macron's nomination of Richard Ferrand, former president of the Assemblée Nationale (from 2018 to 2022), to succeed Laurent Fabius as head of the Constitutional Council, which rules on the constitutionality of laws, was made official on Monday, February 10. The president of the Assemblée Nationale, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and her counterpart in the Sénat, Gérard Larcher, also made public the names of their respective nominees to replace Corinne Luquiens and Michel Pinault, who are also completing their nine-year terms on the Council.

Here too, there were no surprises. Braun-Pivet nominated the former centrist MP and ex-judge Laurence Vichnievsky. The only unknown factor in this casting was the Sénat. Right up to the end, Larcher left it in doubt between two longtime members of the chamber: François-Noël Buffet, now a minister, and Philippe Bas, best known for chairing the Sénat inquiry into Macron's former security officer Alexandre Benalla. He finally chose Bas.

The names must now be validated by Parliament. The laws committees of both chambers have veto power, provided that three-fifths of the votes cast are against a candidate. Ferrand's hearing, scheduled for February 19, will be eagerly awaited. The left-wing opposition will remind this close ally of Macron of the two black marks on his resumé: Ferrand is not a legal specialist, and suspicions of favoritism from when he was head of a private health insurance company have left a mark. Following an indictment in 2019, the top appeals court concluded three years later that the case was time-barred, but without having ruled on the facts.

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