The prospect of proportional representation is gaining momentum

The unprecedented political crisis that occurred in July is still not resolved at the beginning of September. This is a trigger for parliamentarians, who are considering changing the method of election for legislative elections. The idea of ​​a proportional vote will be debated soon.

This fall, the budget will not be the only topic to agitate Parliament. It is the great return of the debate on proportional representation, to elect deputies. It is a debate that has been brewing for about fifteen years, but now it is becoming clearer. Many are working on it, texts are being tabled and, according to information from franceinfo, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet will consult all the group presidents during the first half of September on this subject.

As the mood is at an impasse, everyone sees that the current vote, the majority vote, no longer guarantees stability: no one has the majority to reform and the vote no longer serves as a barrier against the extreme right. The RN is weighing more and more, regardless of the way of voting. At the same time, voters from all sides feel scorned, they have more than ever the impression that their vote does not count.

A proportional vote can be based on several types of operation: by department, according to the size of the constituency… This is what the parliamentarians will have to agree on. If we take the simplest version, there would be a single-round election throughout the country, then the sharing of the cake would be done according to the result of each, with a distribution of the 577 seats according to the percentages.

The principle is to simplify things, especially in the minds of voters. Some, for example, have difficulty understanding how the RN, which had the most votes in the legislative elections, around 10 million, has fewer seats in the Assembly than the New Popular Front. In proportional representation, it would have been the opposite: on the last ballot, Marine Le Pen’s troops won 29% in the first round of the legislative elections, which would have translated into 198 deputies if her allies were included, compared to 143 today.

No one would have had an absolute majority, but we would no longer be talking about a bloc. All political sensibilities would be represented. This is the number one argument of the supporters of proportional representation: to regain the trust of the French. No more alliances of convenience, only one way to move forward: compromise.

To establish this change, The idea is to move quickly. MPs are anticipating a possible dissolution in July, in less than a year. It is normally forbidden to change the voting method in such a short period of time. Unless the new law introducing proportional representation changes the rule, according to a constitutional expert. But first, the parliamentarians must meet again, and for that, a government must be appointed.