how Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal mobilized behind the scenes for the text

According to information from franceinfo, the executive played a “very active role” in this matter, “anxious that things move forward quickly and well”. Left-wing parliamentarians have also redoubled their efforts behind the scenes to move the project forward.

A historic day for women. And a symbol to the whole world. Parliament meets on Monday March 4, 2024 in Congress at the Château de Versailles to make France the first country in the world to explicitly include voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in its Constitution and protect the declining right to abortion in number of countries.

The country’s 925 parliamentarians, senators and deputies, are called upon to engrave abortion in stone in the fundamental text. “The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised” : introduced in article 34, the sentence will make France a pioneer, unlike several countries where the right to abortion is declining, in the United States or in Eastern Europe. There remains one last step: that three-fifths of the parliamentarians present – all of whom are invited – give their green light. Which, however, seems a formality given the latest votes in Parliament.

The culmination of an alliance of women

This historic vote is also punctuated by symbols: housed in the South wing of the residence of the kings of France, the prestigious Congress hall is preparing to host a key moment. The palace of the Sun King will be transformed into the palace of the Republic for a few hours, when senators and deputies will sit in the large hemicycle, arranged in alphabetical order. Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, will open the session. She will then be the first woman to preside over a Congress.

This vote also marks the culmination of co-construction work. The idea of ​​the text comes from the Insoumise Mathilde Panot, supported by the Renaissance Aurore Bergé, defended in the Senate by the Ecologist Mélanie Vogel, the Socialist Laurence Rossignol and the Centrist Dominique Vérien. An alliance of women beyond political colors. And this major boost: Emmanuel Macron who transforms this work into a bill to give him more chance. Or when adversaries become partners in the cause: a dream scenario in a relative majority situation, at a time when the president’s troops are having difficulty reforming.

“Very active role”

Behind the scenes, moreover, we slip that Emmanuel Macron had a “very active role“, according to leading advisors, who speak of “very regular contacts“between the executive and influential senators… initiated in particular by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in person, “anxious that things progress quickly and well“. All this despite the pressure along the way from the LR boss of the Senate Gérard Larcher, who threatened to delay the process.

In Monday afternoon’s proceedings, on the executive side, it was the Prime Minister who spoke from the podium. As is customary, it is up to Gabriel Attal to present the text to register “freedom guaranteed” women to resort to abortion. As it is a constitutional revision, the president is prohibited from participating in it. But there is no question of Emmanuel Macron stepping aside.

The Head of State plans to participate in the ceremony of sealing the Constitution by the Minister of Justice, Friday March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, according to his entourage who speaks of “end point to the progression of the text”, with a speech on his part. A way for the president to come full circle and meet the deadlines he hoped for: an inclusion in the Constitution before March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day. A year earlier, on March 8, 2023, he promised to set this right in stone, in opposition to the American Supreme Court which had just weakened it. This also allows Emmanuel Macron to bring concrete progress to feminist collectives after a complicated year, particularly after his support for actor Gérard Depardieu indicted for rape.