A proposal to impeach President Emmanuel Macron, brought against him by the radical left, was rejected by the Assemblée Nationale's Laws Committee on Wednesday, October 2. At the end of a "very good-quality" debate, with "very in-depth discussions," according to the committee's president, Florent Boudié (Macron's Renaissance party), the MPs overwhelmingly rejected, with 54 votes against and 15 for, a motion for the constitution of a joint parliamentary session known as a "High Court" to examine the impeachment proposal signed by all MPs from the La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) party as well as a few Greens and Communists.

Their grievances revolve around Macron's refusal to appoint Lucie Castets, the left's proposed candidate for prime minister, despite the left-wing coalition having come out on top in the snap parliamentary elections held on June 30 and July 7.

As the committee examined the motion, debates were not limited to legal arguments and each bloc was able to describe its own point of view on the president's choice to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale on June 9 and his appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister after a record 51-day delay. The left criticized Macron's choice of politician from a party that won only 5% of the vote and had rejected taking part in the "republican front," the tradition by which parties choose to withdraw candidates from certain races to help beat the far right.

The impeachment motion's rapporteur, Jérémie Iordanoff, a Green, felt "that these political faults, given their accumulation and repercussions, could constitute a breach" of Macron's presidential duties, but that the absence of parliamentary consensus invalidated the idea of impeachment.

Even though their procedure failed because of the political balance of power in Parliament, LFI's members presented this tactical move as part of their narrative of "the agony of the Fifth Republic": "Toppling the government is necessary, but insufficient. The problem isn't just at the prime minister's office, it's at the Elysée. And by proposing to impeach Mr. Macron, we want to resolve this problem through constitutional channels," stated LFI's Antoine Léaument, who deemed the day "historic."

Iordanoff insisted on the unprecedented nature of the debate, which has set new precedents on the use of Article 68 of the Constitution, which defines the penal, but also political, responsibility of the president. The president is not politically accountable to Parliament, unlike his government, which can be toppled.

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