The third man in the presidential election has made it a campaign slogan: “Mélenchon Prime Minister”. As if a possible victory for his movement, the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), in the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, forced Emmanuel Macron to appoint him to Matignon. The President of the Republic replied to him, without naming him, in an interview with the regional press, Friday June 3: “The president chooses the person he appoints prime minister by looking at parliament. No political party can impose a name on the president.”
So what does the law say? “The Constitution is clear on this point: its article 8 says that the President of the Republic appoints the Prime Minister”recalls Michel Verpeaux, professor emeritus at the Sorbonne law school. “No condition is imposed on it in the text.” Emmanuel Macron can therefore appoint whoever he wants, regardless of the composition of the National Assembly.
In reality, it’s not that simple. The political color of the hemicycle of the Assembly determines the decision. If it does not suit a majority of deputies, they can overthrow the government by refusing to give it their confidence or by voting a motion of censure, as provided for in article 49 of the Constitution. A group that obtains an absolute majority cannot impose a candidate, but it has the power to eliminate a Prime Minister that it does not like.
En case of blocking, the chairman has from a last card: the dissolution of The national assembly. This one allows him tocall new legislative elections in the hope to get a more favorable majority. “The risk would be to have an even worse result for the president, because the voters would be tired of repeated elections for example”, explains Michel Verpeaux. The Head of State cannot dissolve the National Assembly more than once a year, according to the Constitution. In the event of a new defeat, he would find himself stuck.
This is why, during the cohabitations that have marked French political history, the president has always chosen the leader of the parliamentary majority to occupy Matignon. “During the first cohabitation in 1986, several scenarios were evoked, but President François Mitterrand finally chose to appoint Jacques Chirac, who imposed himself as leader of the right”says Michel Verpeaux. “In 1997, the question had not even arisen: Jacques Chirac was obliged to make Lionel Jospin his Prime Minister because he still appeared as the leader of the left, which he had led to the presidential election of 1995 and which had obtained a majority in Parliament.
Is the Head of State therefore obliged to appoint the person who leads the opposition, in the event of victory for the latter? “The president must adapt to the political trend of the majority, but he retains the freedom to designate someone else within this group, or a person who would be at the crossroads of the parliamentary majority and his own. “, explains Michel Verpeaux. For example, during the second cohabitation in 1993, “François Mitterrand chose Edouard Balladur as Prime Minister, while Jacques Chirac was still leader of the right. But it was probably because the latter did not want to try the experiment again”replaces the constitutionalist.
In contrast, “in the event of a victory for Nupes, this scenario is a bit difficult to imagine”he adds. “It is not clear who could bring together the Nupes and the presidential majority”, according to the specialist. In the program shared by the coalition of left-wing parties, Jean-Luc Mélenchon writes clearly that the objective of the agreement is to “to form a government whose [il sera] the Prime Minister.”
Asked about the scenario of an appointment of Mathilde Panot, leader of the LFI deputies in the Assembly, on the set of franceinfo Friday June 3, Jean-Luc Mélenchon rejected “fiction” and declared that “when you are a democrat (…)we appoint the person who is proposed by the majority coalition.
Still in the event of a victory for Nupes, the president could also try to“experience” the coalition by appointing a person “acceptable to socialists, environmentalists and LREM”explained in the Figaro Benjamin Morel, lecturer in public law at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas. “The PS and EELV are only bound by a moral agreement with rebellious France”judges the teacher.
There remains one last hypothesis: that where neither the presidential party nor the Nupes obtain an absolute majority. Michel Verpeaux explains that, in this case, Emmanuel Macron can try to form a coalition with other parliamentary groups, in particular Les Républicains.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon ironically commented on these possibilities the day after Emmanuel Macron’s interview, during his speech in Villeurbanne. “Formally, it is true. It is not marked in the Constitution ‘the president must appoint Mélenchon’. But it would not be reasonable to do otherwise”he swept away.