Political forces describe the proposal as declaration of war against institutionsor: smokescreen of the far left

AFP and Europa Press

The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, September 18, 2024, p. 26

Paris. The French National Assembly’s board agreed yesterday to debate a proposal to remove President Emmanuel Macron from office for refusing to name the candidate for prime minister of the left-wing coalition that won the last legislative elections.

Macron’s refusal to appoint economist Lucie Castets, proposed by the New Popular Front (NPF), is a serious violation of the duty to respect the will expressed by universal suffragesays the approved initiative.

The proposal, which was mainly presented by the radical left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI), was approved in parliament and received the support of the other members of the NFP at the National Assembly, according to several sources.

Where there is a will, there is a wayproclaimed the deputy and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while the head of the LFI group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, has spoken directly of a Historic Day of the Fifth Republic.

To be successful, the impeachment process would need to be supported by two-thirds of parliamentarians, which would require the support of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), which has already announced that it will not lend itself to the task. a maneuver of distraction of the extreme left.

The three deputies of the Socialist Party (PS) at the table voted in favor of the process, but the party has already warned that it will make a statement unanimously against the dismissal both in the legislative committee and then in the plenary session.

The lower house’s governing body, the Board, has already approved this first stage by 12 votes to 10, according to the head of the Union of the Right group, Eric Ciotti, who is allied with far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the early legislative elections in June.

The elections, unexpectedly called by the president three years ahead of schedule, left the National Assembly divided into three main blocs – the left, Macron’s centre-right alliance and the far right – all of which are far from achieving an absolute majority of 289 deputies.

Although the NFP won the election with 193 seats, the president entrusted the formation of a government to veteran politician Michel Barnier, a member of the right-wing party Les Républiques (47 seats), considering that he had a better chance of overcoming a vote of no confidence.

The Law Commission, where the left does not have a majority, must now debate the proposal before it reaches the plenary session of the lower house.

Macron’s parliamentary leader Gabriel Attal called the proposal a “declaration of war against the institutions,” while Le Pen called it a smokescreen of the far left to hide their alleged commitments to the government.