“I don’t believe in its constitutional science”: Louis Aliot (RN) responds to Richard Ferrand’s warning on the referendum

Rue de Montpensier continues to be in the sights of nationalists. On October 10, the president of the Constitutional Council, Richard Ferrand, drew attention to the proposed reform of the Constitution defended by the four-time candidate of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen. “He should maintain a minimum of neutrality in his function and not engage in political paths,” warned Louis Aliot, the Lepénist mayor of Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) on Europe 1/CNEWS this Tuesday.

In an interview with the podcast Quid Juris? in partnership with BFM, the former Macronist MP attested that “wanting to reform the Constitution through article 11 does not exist, it is article 89”. In this last article, the 1958 Constitution specifies that to have a constitutional reform adopted, the National Assembly and the Senate must adopt it in the same terms. And be approved by three-fifths of parliamentarians meeting in congress or by referendum. However, the nationalist contender, Marine Le Pen, intends to free herself from this relatively complex procedure and call a referendum through article 11 to register her migration project.

“It’s not De Gaulle who wants”

Louis Aliot, also vice-president of the flame party, had little taste for Richard Ferrand's reminders. “There is only one sovereign in the Republic, it is the people,” he retorts. To convince of the merits of this proposal, the RN recalls that Charles de Gaulle had directly consulted the French in 1962 on the establishment of direct universal suffrage. “It’s part of the French constitutional order,” claims the former companion of Marine Le Pen. If Richard Ferrand considered that “it is not de Gaulle who wants”, he also recalled that from now on the institution has the competence to “judge the decrees calling a referendum”.