“We can hold referendums, provided we do not evade the rule of law,” believes Jean-Philippe Derosier, law professor and president of GRECI

“In absolute yes, obviously. The referendum is the direct word given to the people, so allowing them to have more direct speech is good. Except that currently the scope of the referendum is not completely farm”recalls Jean-Philippe Derosier, law professor and president of GRECI, on the set of 19/20 info, Wednesday October 4.

Although the latter welcomes a potential enlargement, he nevertheless believes that it would be necessary “compute it by another measure”. “We can hold referendums, but on condition (…) that we do not evade the rule of law. What is asked of the people must respect the Constitution, he adds. (…) All bills submitted to the people must be checked by the Council in advance, to ensure that they respect the Constitution.”

The question of immigration

According to Marine Le Pen, no need for constitutional reform to submit a question to the French on immigration. Is this not a priori explicitly excluded from the scope of Article 11? For Jean-Philippe Derosier, this is not “not explicitly excluded, since it is not stated that immigration is excluded”on the other hand “we can absolutely construct an interpretation (…) that immigration would fit into economic and social policy”.

“If it is a question of reestablishing border control, the Constitutional Council should not reestablish it, since this would be contrary to the Constitution, even contrary to European commitmentsadds the president of GRECI. If it is a question of social assistance for immigrants, (…) yes, it falls within the scope of the referendum.”