La France Insoumise threatens to initiate impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron, the PS does not support the move

“It is obvious that the refusal to acknowledge a legislative election and the decision to ignore it constitute a reprehensible failure to meet the basic requirements of the presidential mandate,” write the signatories of the text published in “La Tribune Dimanche.”

La France Insoumise threatens to initiate impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron, accused of “institutional coup against democracy” for his refusal “to take note” of the result of the July legislative elections, in a text published on Saturday August 17 in The Sunday Tribune.

“We give this platform a concrete role of solemn warning”write the co-signatories, including the leader of the rebels, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the party coordinator, Manuel Bompard, and the head of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot. Emmanuel Macron “must know that all constitutional means will be used to remove him rather than submitting to his dirty trick against the basic rule of democracy: in France, the only master is the popular vote“, they insist.

While Emmanuel Macron must consult the political forces next Friday with a view to forming a new government, almost a month and a half after the elections, the rebels are warning the head of state, who “would be about to appoint a head of government without taking into account the political outcome” of these legislative elections.

On July 23, before the Olympic Games, the President of the Republic ruled out the possibility of appointing the NFP candidate, Lucie Castets, to Matignon, arguing that she would not be able to gather a sufficient base in the Assembly to govern. Since then, the names of Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve have been circulating.

The rebels invoke article 68 of the Constitution, which allows Parliament to dismiss the President of the Republic for “failure to fulfil his duties manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate”. “It is clear that the refusal to acknowledge a legislative election and the decision to ignore it constitute a reprehensible failure to meet the basic requirements of the presidential mandate.”argue the signatories of the platform. Such a procedure must, however, overcome several parliamentary obstacles.

Olivier Faure ruled out the possibility of the Socialist Party supporting a procedure to impeach Emmanuel Macron, saying on Sunday that he preferred the “censorship”. This approach “only involves their movement” and not the whole of the NFP, wrote Olivier Faure on X. “The response to a nomination [d’un Premier ministre] which would not be in accordance with the republican tradition, is censorship”he added.

Even if it had been supported by the entire NFP, LFI’s approach would have been complex to bring to fruition: an impeachment procedure requires convincing the Assembly and the Senate to constitute themselves as a “High Court”. This requires, in particular, a two-thirds majority in each hemicycle, then during the vote of all parliamentarians.