Emmanuel Macron under political pressure to put constitutional reform on hold

Between a defense council on Monday and the council of ministers on Tuesday, the head of state must notably decide whether to extend the state of emergency which has entered into force in the archipelago for 12 days.

The executive is still looking for a way out of the crisis in New Caledonia. On site, the situation is still tense, but calmer. At the Elysée, a new defense council was convened on the evening of Monday May 20 by Emmanuel Macron. The state of emergency which entered into force on Thursday in the territory will be one of the points discussed: valid for 12 days, the executive must decide whether to extend it or not.

The executive must decide and very quickly, because the state of emergency ends next Monday. And it is impossible to extend this state of emergency by decree. If Emmanuel Macron judges that the security situation remains too fragile, it will therefore be necessary to go through the law, within a timed period. If necessary, everything is ready: a text has been prepared in recent days and a council of ministers is scheduled for Tuesday morning. As for the Assembly, one session is already blocked, starting early Wednesday afternoon.

Extending the state of emergency is justified, defends a deputy, because the calm remains relative and because it is necessary “keep derogatory measures until the Olympic Games”, at the risk of finding himself politically mishandled, predicts an advisor. According to him, “the debates will turn into a trial of the government over its management of the New Caledonian issue.”

On the merits of the issue, including in the majority, more and more voices are urging Emmanuel Macron not to convene the congress to adopt the constitutional reform. Emmanuel Macron may have warned in a letter to New Caledonian elected officials last week: an agreement by the end of June, or a congress, doubt is settling in among some of his troops. “Convening the congress is putting a coin back into the machine”, warns an interlocutor of the Head of State. Many of the elected representatives of the majority are now pleading for a postponement, to allow time to renew the dialogue. This is particularly the case of the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. Especially “that we would not have a majority“, said an MP.

In the event of a postponement, there would still be another point to resolve: who could lead possible discussions? “Edouard Philippe would be the best, it would have the advantage of getting him politically wet and annoying Gabriel Attal”, argues a majority executive. This is not yet news, in recent days, Emmanuel Macron himself called New Caledonian elected officials. The proof, sighs an elected official, “that he still wants to sort everything out on his own”.