La France Insoumise threatens to initiate impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron

The left-wing movement is threatening to initiate impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron, accused of “institutional coup against democracy” for his refusal “to take note” of the result of the July legislative elections, in a text published on Saturday August 17 in The Sunday Tribune. “We give this platform a concrete role of solemn warning”write the co-signatories, including the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the party coordinator Manuel Bompard and the deputy Mathilde Panot. Emmanuel Macron “must know that all constitutional means will be used to remove him rather than submitting to his dirty trick against the basic rule of democracy: in France, the only master is the popular vote“, they insist.

While Emmanuel Macron is due to consult the political forces next Friday with a view to forming a government, almost a month and a half after the elections, the Insoumis are warning the president who “would be about to appoint a head of government without taking into account the political outcome” of these legislative elections. On July 23, the president ruled out the possibility of appointing NFP representative Lucie Castets to Matignon, arguing that she would not be able to gather a sufficient base in the Assembly to govern. Since then, the names of Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve have been circulating.

“The decision of the head of state can be described as an institutional coup against democracy.”deplore the Insoumis. They therefore invoke article 68 of the Constitution, which allows Parliament to dismiss the president for “failure to fulfil his duties manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate”. “It is clear that the refusal to acknowledge a legislative election and the decision to ignore it constitute a reprehensible failure to meet the basic requirements of the presidential mandate.”argue the signatories of the platform. Such a procedure must, however, overcome several parliamentary obstacles.