The radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party's effort to remove Emmanuel Macron from office passed a first crucial step on Tuesday, September 17. The bureau of the Assemblée Nationale, the institution's top decision-making body, validated the admissibility of the procedure initiated by LFI, with the support of the Greens, the Communists and even the Socialists.
Since the lengthy late-night session at the installation of the 27th legislature on July 19, the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition has held a majority of 12 of the 22 seats on the bureau of the Assemblée, which is chaired by Assemblée Nationale president Yaël Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron's Renaissance party.
This new majority has emboldened LFI, which on August 17 threatened Macron with impeachment if he did not appoint Lucie Castets, the NFP candidate for prime minister. After Macron decided not to name Castets, LFI put their money where their mouth was and submitted their text.
Gabriel Attal, former prime minister and president of Macron's group of MPs in the Assemblée Nationale, aid during the bureau's meeting that "this motion and this debate [are] a declaration of war [on] [French] institutions," and called its authors "agents of permanent destabilization." Braun-Pivet criticized the left-wing majority on the Assemblée Nationale's bureau for approving Macron's impeachment proceedings, stating they "have chosen to misuse the rule of law." She added, "Our rules are meant to be respected. The decision by some to exploit them for purely political purposes is causing serious damage to our institutions," she wrote in a press release.
Introduced by the 2007 constitutional amendment, this procedure for the impeachment of the president has never been successful and requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament to form a High Court. The procedure is limited to a single reading in each chamber, all within a fortnight. Article 68 of the Constitution stipulates that the president can only be removed "in the event of a breach of duty manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate."
This ambiguous definition allows lawmakers to assess for themselves what constitutes a breach of duty by the president. The sanction is, above all, political, as the president remains immune from criminal, civil and administrative liability while in office.
The left is not united behind LFI's initiative to impeach the president. "It's not the line, nor the priority of the Greens. Is it serious that they did it? No. Is that our position? No, it isn't. Do we have to make a big deal out of it? No, it's not," said Marine Tondelier, leader of the Greens, on BFM-TV over the summer. Nevertheless, some left-wing lawmakers, including Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, signed the LFI motion for a resolution. Additionally, the leaders of these two groups stated they would not oppose its admissibility.
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