The proposal to dismiss the Insoumis was deemed admissible by the office of the National Assembly. While LFI only has 72 deputies, the party must now find support to vote for it.
On Tuesday, September 17, the bureau of the National Assembly – the highest collegiate authority of the Palais Bourbon – deemed “admissible” the procedure for the dismissal of the President of the Republic by La France insoumise (LFI), in the face of the Head of State’s refusal to appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon. Although it has almost no chance of success, this proposal will be sent to the Laws Committee, but without any obligation to set an agenda. In other words, without any particular rush. Whether this committee is in favor or not, the text will then be presented to the National Assembly. In the lower house, the text will have to be approved by two-thirds of parliamentarians, or 385 deputies. The problem for the Insoumis is that the group only has 72 deputies. LFI must now count on the other left-wing forces to try to get its proposal voted on, an arduous task, as some have already clearly positioned themselves against it. If, by surprise, the text passes the National Assembly stage, it would then head to the Senate where the left is even more of a minority.
Two-thirds of parliamentarians approve the impeachment proposalEmmanuel Macron by LFI seems to be off to a bad start. Especially since this initiative will not be able to count on the parliamentarians of the center and the right. The latter have no reason to support the initiative, the appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon has put LR back at the center of the debates, while the group only has 47 deputies in the National Assembly. However, LR is eyeing the most prestigious portfolios before the announcement of the future Barnier government. Interior, Justice, Health, Economy and National Education are particularly targeted by the right. The big names Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau are among the favorites to obtain a ministry. So, which political parties could be led to vote in favor of the proposal to dismiss LFI? What are the chances of seeing this procedure go further than the National Assembly? Elements of an answer.
Socialist Party (PS): a vote against
If they vote in favour of examining the LFI proposal in committee, the PS deputies will “unanimously” vote against its adoption in the National Assembly. For the socialists, this initiative is “doomed to failure”. A decision announced on Monday 16 September, in the name of strategic differences with the Insoumis. “We have reaffirmed very strongly that we do not support this procedure”, explained the group’s leader, Boris Vallaud. “I am fed up with the presidential institution. It prevents us from coming together and uniting”, the latter had even complained at the Fête de l’Humanité.
La France Insoumise (LFI): a vote for
Unsurprisingly, all LFI deputies will vote in favor of the impeachment proposal. “This is an unprecedented event in the Fifth Republic that has just occurred (…) The members of the office considered, by a majority, that the President of the Republic was no longer the guarantor of the proper functioning of republican institutions and that therefore the debate should take place before the entire French people”, Mathilde Panot, head of the LFI group in the National Assembly, was pleased on Tuesday, September 17 in the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes. The proposal to impeach the Head of State was signed by 81 deputies, which suggests that some Ecologists were able to join them, as well as a few Communists, the LFI deputies being 72 in the Lower House. Indeed, the Ecologists have not yet clearly announced their positions on this procedure initiated by LFI. On Tuesday morning, the coordinator of La France Insoumise, Manuel Bompard, was already proposing a name to replace Emmanuel Macron, if the impeachment proposal were to succeed. “If it were to happen tomorrow, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the best placed person,” he said.
French Communist Party (PCF): a vote against
In the ranks of the Democratic and Republican Left Group (GDR), in which the Communists sit in the National Assembly, the trend is clearly “no”, before a vote in the Lower House. “It is not illegitimate that the representatives of the people can examine this resolution” judges Stéphane Peu, Communist MP for Seine-Saint-Denis and Communist representative in the bureau. On the other hand, “in this period, the resolution shifts the debate towards the presidential election at a time when Parliament has become central”, he judges. If the PCF wanted “the debate to take place”, the deputies will “surely be in the majority not to vote for the resolution” for all that, specifies Stéphane Peu.
National Rally (RN): a vote against
The leader of the RN deputies in the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, was very clear about the proposal to impeach Emmanuel Macron initiated by LFI: it would be a “smoke screen maneuver,” she said on Tuesday. “In an attempt to make people forget its multiple compromises with Macronie, the far left is defending a procedure to impeach the President of the Republic that has no chance of succeeding given the divisions on the left,” she denounced. The objective is clear: to discredit LFI and put the left and Macronie on the same level, allies in blocking the RN during the last early legislative elections. “This smokescreen maneuver will not make the French forget that LFI came to Macron’s aid in 2017, did it again in 2022 before negotiating electoral agreements to withdraw in June 2024 to save their seats. This sinister comedy has gone on long enough, Macronie and LFI are linked in the collapse, disorder and chaos into which the country is plunged,” she concluded at the beginning of this week. LFI will therefore not be able to count on the support of the RN to vote for its proposal to impeach the President of the Republic.