is the future of the bill in question after the opposition of the President of the Senate?

The President of the Republicans of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, indicated Tuesday on franceinfo that he did not want the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy to be included in the Constitution.

A cold shower for those who believed in consensus. In the “8h30 franceinfo” of Tuesday January 23, the boss of the Republicans of the Senate Gérard Larcher said he was opposed to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution. The deputies will begin the debates on Wednesday in the hemicycle but the vote in the National Assembly on the government’s text has been postponed in a week.

After this declaration by President LR of the Senate, the communist deputy Sébastien Jumel denounces a drift on the right: “I think the right is getting lost. The right was great at the time of Simone Veil. The right was great when on fundamental principles, we could find ourselves on what makes the Republic. IVG, the right to abortion engraved in stone, if that doesn’t make a Republic, I don’t know what we’re talking about.”

MPs denounce a political coup by Gérard Larcher

However, everything was going well. A first text from La France insoumise to guarantee “the right” to voluntary termination of pregnancy will pass very widely at the end of 2022 with a large part of the votes of the majority and even the National Rally. Second green light then in the Senate but with a much closer result and in a version rewritten by the right. It is no longer a question of “right” but of “freedom” to have recourse to abortion.

At that moment, Emmanuel Macron decided to take up the subject to give him more chance and to recoup the benefits in the process. A bill is tabled, it splits the pear in two with the wording “guaranteed freedom to have recourse” to abortion. The text is adopted in committee. But just before the last stage, that is to say the vote in the hemicycle of the Assembly scheduled for Wednesday, then of the Senate at the end of February, a rifle shot in mid-air with this stop Tuesday morning on franceinfo by Gérard Larcher.

Environmentalist Julien Bayou denounces a political coup: “With all the respect I owe to the President of the Senate, I find him to be a fool, a hypocrite as hell. In this interview, he explains that abortion is not threatened and at the same time he explains that we have unfortunately lost dozens and dozens of centers over several years which practice abortion. It is a question of guaranteeing new rights in the Constitution and not of opposing a maneuver or ‘popol’ to harm the president.”

LR senators felt “despised”

The question arises: is it to harm the head of state that Gérard Larcher opposes the constitutionalization of abortion? In any case, it is no surprise to anyone: the President of the Senate has always been against it, like others and many right-wing parliamentarians. But it’s all a question of balance of power. Even more so now, according to a pillar of the Senate contacted by franceinfo. According to him, the executive has “been reckless” by announcing this fall a date for the Congress – March 5 – as if it were done while each assembly still needs to decide on the text.

To the right, “the senators took it as contempt”and then “they have not digested the Rachida Dati incident” – the appointment of the now ex-LR to the Ministry of Culture. “They’re a little nervous so when they can throw a punch… They do it”, continues the senator. This does not mean that they will vote against it in the end, but they can renegotiate the terms, taking longer than expected and therefore pushing back the date of the Congress. Way for them to remain “masters of the clocks” when we want to impose the tempo on them.