a priority for the majority, no mention to the RN and the left… What are the parties proposing on the end of life?

Before the legislative elections, franceinfo takes stock of the main measures put forward in this campaign. If we look at the law on the end of life, three political blocs stand out on the subject.

The law on the end of life, the great societal law of the five-year term, went into the trash on June 9, the evening when the presidential majority saw the National Rally win the European elections, and when Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the ‘National Assembly. It could return to the agenda after the early legislative elections. But what do the candidates think?

A priority for the presidential majority

The presidential camp has made it a priority if it obtains the majority again. As a reminder, the bill from Gabriel Attal’s government said that a convicted patient, who is suffering and lucid, could be authorized to kill himself. If he was not physically capable, then a third party – a doctor, a nurse or a relative – could administer the lethal product. Examination of this law will be resumed within the first 100 days, promises Gabriel Attal. THE Prime Minister in campaign (Renaissance – Ensemble) even hopes have the end-of-life bill passed before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

For the presidential camp, most of the text has already been validated, since at the time of the dissolution of the National Assembly, articles 5 and 6 of assistance in dying had been voted on. There were around ten articles left to review. But with the dissolution, everything went into the trash. If the text returns, you will have to start the examination again from the beginning. Voting on it in less than a month seems a difficult objective, because until now, the legislative process in the parliamentary committee and in the hemicycle had taken place over almost two months of intense work.

Not a word in the programs of the right and the extreme right

Among Les Républicains (LR) and the National Rally (RN), not a word on the end of life in the electoral programs. During the debates initiated in the National Assembly in recent weeks, deputies from both parties were very strongly opposed to Assisted dying. We can logically conclude that in the event of victory, the project would be definitively abandoned.

“I don’t imagine that he [le projet de loi] be rescheduled immediately”explained to franceinfo Patrick Hetzel, the outgoing Republican deputy, opposed to assisted dying. “And with the necessary parliamentary shuttles on a text like this”even if he finally succeeds in finding a majority, it will not be before “2026 or more”, he estimated. For the association Le Choix, if the RN governs, the law on the end of life “is postponed until the Greek calendars”.

No mention in the left’s program

On the left, the program of the New Popular Front makes no mention of a law on the end of life. But in the National Assembly in recent weeks, many deputies were in favor of Assisted dying and even wanted to relax the conditions set by the government for access to it. Today, at La France insoumise (LFI) for example, outgoing MP Hadrien Clouet is committed to resubmitting the text to the Assembly if he is re-elected.

Assistance in dying is above all a personal matter that touches the intimate. Individually, a handful of outgoing MPs from various parties remain very involved on the issue. They speak about the End of Life law on their profession of faith, in public meetings, or by going door to door. Besides Hadrien Clouet for the New Popular Front, there is also Olivier Falorni who is very committed to the issue. The deputy (MoDem – Ensemble) is one of the rapporteurs of the text, as is the deputy Didier Martin (Renaissance – Ensemble). We must also of course cite Agnès Firmin Le Bodo (Horizons – Ensemble), the author of the bill.