Eric Ciotti is not conservative. The president of the Republicans (LR) has never taken up societal themes to forge his political identity. Question of temperament. Strategy, too. The deputy for Alpes-Maritimes rubbed shoulders with Bruno Retailleau, very identified on these subjects, during the internal Republican election. We had to differentiate ourselves.
He is especially eyeing the right-wing Macronist electorate with a view to 2027, which he wishes to win back thanks to a liberal rather than traditionalist discourse. And then, man has memory. He knows how François-Xavier Bellamy’s reluctance towards abortion had a “repelling” effect on right-wing voters during the 2019 European elections. When the constitutionalization of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy comes to Parliament in fall 2022, the chosen one smells the trap. And immediately assures that he will approve the text. “If you don’t vote for it, you appear to be anti-abortion,” he then sums up in private.
The legacy of Simone Veil
The subject has a heavy symbolic charge, it calls for a simple response. Be summary, even if it means silencing certain doubts. Take responsibility for the legal debate, at the risk of sharpening suspicion. Here is the right on this crest line, on the occasion of the examination this Wednesday, January 24 in the Assembly of the constitutional bill on the “freedom” to resort to abortion. The project plans to include in our fundamental law that “the law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed” for women to have recourse to an abortion is exercised. This wording is a compromise between the consecration of a “right” – initially defended by the deputies – and that of a “freedom” – preferred by the senators – to which the executive added the term “guarantee”.
The right is here worked by contrary currents. The vast majority of LR deputies approve of the principle of a constitutional revision, but are skeptical about the wording chosen by the government. They fear a disruption of the balance of the Veil law, which protects the rights of women and those of the unborn child. On the podium, the LR MP for Savoie Emilie Bonnivard warned this Wednesday against two extremes: “The questioning of abortion […] and an abortion without any limits.” “I will not let anyone have reductive remarks about the Republican right”, she launched, anxious to dispel any ambiguity about her message. The boss of LR deputies Olivier Marleix recalled this Wednesday morning on LCI its attachment to “the spirit of the law of 1975”. “Liberty, if it is enshrined in the Constitution, must not be the opportunity to crush other rights.”
“We have an interest in purging the debate before the European elections”
On the right, the Veil law is erected as a totem. Nobody questions it. Was it not voted on with the support of Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing? Isn’t it part of the societal advances that it can claim? However, some voices oppose any constitutional revision. The reluctance is not intended to be ideological but practical. The right to abortion is not called into question in France as in the United States and already enjoys constitutional protection in our case law. Modifying our fundamental law would be useless and would trivialize this text.
“The Constitution is not a catalog of social and societal rights,” Senate President Gérard Larcher assured Tuesday on France Info. The boss of LR senators Bruno Retailleau is on this line, like a majority of LR senators. In the Assembly, a handful of conservative deputies tabled almost all of the LR amendments during the examination of the constitutional bill (PJLC). Most often to moderate the scope of the executive text.
This right is not in the majority, but it knows how to make itself heard. “These conservative forces are successively defeated text after text, year after year, notes an LR executive. So, they want to derail the thing when they have the opportunity.” At the risk of confusing LR’s overall message on abortion. The PJLC review is uncertain. If the Assembly and the Senate do not vote on a text in identical terms with a view to convening Congress, a shuttle will begin between the two chambers. It can last indefinitely. The right has little interest in the debate dragging on. The European elections are approaching, François-Xavier Bellamy would then inevitably be questioned on the subject. On the right, no one wants history to repeat itself. “We have an interest in purging the debate before the European elections,” notes a leader. “If we have a shuttle during the spring, it will not help Bellamy.” Perhaps we will then have to assume that we are “simple”.
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