A sign that tension is rising as the presidential election approaches, the counterattack did not take long. After the head of the Constitutional Council, Richard Ferrand, publicly brushed aside Marine Le Pen's flagship proposal to revise the Constitution by referendum, without going through Parliament, via article 11 of the fundamental text, the RN candidate for the Élysée called on him to "leave the head" of the institution. In question? A breach, according to her, of her duty of reserve. “By having made these remarks, he broke with his obligation of neutrality, and with the prohibition, which is in the texts, of commenting on a matter which has not yet been submitted to the Constitutional Council,” the nationalist figure accused on Wednesday during a press conference in Brussels.
As of Tuesday, Jordan Bardella stepped up to the plate. On the sidelines of a trip to Madrid, the president of the RN estimated that Richard Ferrand was behaving like a “socialist clan leader”. A dig in reference to the past of the former socialist deputy, who became one of Emmanuel Macron's early followers, embarking on the En Marche adventure (today Renaissance) in 2016. “If the French place their trust in us, the French will be consulted by referendum” to modify the Constitution, and “Mr. Ferrand will not be able to prevent this consultation,” insisted the MEP.
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In view of this political-legal confrontation, a point of law is essential. While the RN intends to submit its reform directly to the French, article 89 of the fundamental law - which governs any revision - provides that a project must first be voted on in "identical terms" by the National Assembly and the Senate, before being approved by referendum or by a three-fifths majority of Parliament meeting in Congress at Versailles. However, the equation is not so simple for the RN. If he hopes to win a majority in the Assembly thanks to a dissolution carried out after the presidential election which he would have won, the upper house will remain dominated by the right and the center, likely to block such a reform.
Also read Modify the Constitution by referendum: Marine Le Pen and Richard Ferrand resurrect an old quarrel around General de Gaulle
Hence the desire of the flame party to set aside this famous article 89 in favor of article 11, supposed to be used to organize referendums “on the organization of public powers”, and not to revise the fundamental law. What matters for the RN, which invokes the precedent of 1962, when General de Gaulle submitted to the French the election of the President of the Republic by direct universal suffrage. An argument that Richard Ferrand disputes. “The Constitutional Council - which was barely four years old, it was a growing baby - had issued what was said at the time an unofficial opinion, to tell General de Gaulle that it was not in conformity with the Constitution,” he recalls. But “it’s not de Gaulle who wants it” and, since then, “life has changed,” says the former president of the National Assembly.
Ferrand: article 89, the only “way” to reform the constitution
And for good reason: “The Constitutional Council, over the course of its existence, has recognized the competence to judge the decrees calling for a referendum,” he warns again, suggesting that the Wise Men would cancel the calling of such a vote. “Article 89 is the only way to reform the Constitution. All my predecessors have said it (...) Don't let anyone tell me that it's impossible, there have been 25 revisions. This requires real in-depth work from our representatives,” he argues.
