Two recent votes refute the idea that France is currently at the mercy of both conservative and reactionary forces. The first is the historic constitutional amendment to protect women's freedom to have abortions: on March 4, 780 lawmakers voted in favor of it, 72 against, 50 abstained. The result was so overwhelming that an unusual cheerfulness, tinged with pride, pervaded the March 8 ceremony during which the seal of the Republic was affixed to this text that enshrines the vigor of the feminist struggle. Having become the first country to enshrine guaranteed freedom of access to abortion in its Constitution, France intends to take the fight to the European stage, by including it in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, at a time when this right appears to be under threat in several countries, notably in the US.
That same week, MPs unanimously approved, on first reading, a proposal for a law to recognize and compensate for the harm suffered by homosexual people as a result of the discriminatory laws in force between 1942 and 1982. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the people, the homosexuals of France who suffered 40 years of this totally iniquitous repression. Our Republic is never as beautiful as when it knows how to recognize that it has lost the thread of its founding principles, liberty, equality, fraternity," declared Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, in a heightened and emotional atmosphere.
Admitting the errors of the past, consolidating existing rights and opening up new ones are all part of the battle that France can pride itself on. The legalization of abortion, the abolition of the death penalty, the civil marriage and marriage for all bills all bear witness to the desire of many governments, most of them on the left but not exclusively, to keep pace with changing mores, even if this means upsetting the conservative camp. After appearing hesitant for a long time, French President Emmanuel Macron added his support to the movement by announcing on Monday, in Libération and La Croix dailies, that a bill on the end of life will be presented to the Council of Ministers in April, to be debated in Parliament from May onward.
In addition to a substantial reinforcement of palliative care, the text provides for the possibility of requesting "aid in dying" under strictly defined conditions. Even if the terms "assisted suicide" and "euthanasia" are carefully avoided, even if the emergence of a new right or a new freedom is by no means asserted, the president's stated desire to go beyond the 2016 Claeys-Leonetti law – the legal structure currently governing the legal conditions for the end of life – will open up public debate in the middle of an election campaign and no-one can yet predict how violent it might get.
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