A 49.3 that will have left its mark. So far, this year 2023 has been placed under the sign of the social crisis, caused by a more than unpopular pension reform. Since the adoption of the controversial text, the demonstrations have followed one another and the situation has not calmed down.
In the processions of demonstrators, if the slogans against the pension reform are in the majority, many signs also castigate the use of 49.3 and even its mere existence. More broadly, all the institutions of the Fifth Republic are criticized. Claims shared by the left.
“The Constitutional Council cannot be worth more than the Constitution it defends. There is no good Constitutional Council as long as there is a bad Constitution. Down with the bad Republic” declared Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the demonstration on May 1, as reported by BFMTV.
For the leader of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel, the decision of the Constitutional Council to reject the request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) “shows that our Constitution and our Fifth Republic give all powers to the President of the Republic”, considers he with franceinfo.
“The constitution must be changed, we must write a new Republic that respects the citizens,” he added. These ideas are reflected in the common program of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union established in 2022 for the legislative elections. He wanted to “move to the 6th Republic which is a stable parliamentary regime, with a new constitution adopted by referendum”.
But today, after the adoption of the pension reform, ideas of this type are no longer shared only by left-wing sympathizers but by a whole section of the French population.
According to a survey conducted by YouGov for Le HuffPost, 64% of French people believe that a reform of the institutions of the Republic (Presidency, National Assembly, Constitutional Council, etc.) is “desirable”.
Among those questioned, only 14% believe that the Fifth Republic should be maintained as it is. This figure rises to 35% for supporters of the presidential majority and 30% for people close to the Republicans.
Conversely, 34% of French people believe that the Constitution “must be reformed” while 33% think that it must be “structurally modified”. Surprisingly, on this last point, the number of people in agreement exceeds 30% on the side of the presidential majority (34%) and for LR sympathizers (32%).
If the president does not wish to leave the Fifth Republic, he nevertheless plans to reform it. Here’s what we know so far.
With our colleagues from Le Parisien, Emmanuel Macron confided the various issues he wishes to address in his institutional reform. “First, the question of popular sovereignty: should we open up or not the scope of the referendum, of the shared initiative referendum (RIP), should we have more proportionality in the Assembly, should we move towards a regulation of the assemblies which avoids blocking without going to the situation which we have known?”, he explained, specifying that he is “not in favor of the abolition of the post of Prime Minister”.
Nothing is therefore fixed for the moment and the future will tell what the government reform will contain.
