The impeachment procedure against Emmanuel Macron, brought by La France Insoumise, was deemed admissible this Tuesday, September 17 by the bureau of the National Assembly, which referred it for examination before the Laws Committee. If this is an “unprecedented event” for the leader of the LFI group, the procedure will most certainly not succeed. Explanations by Guillaume Tusseau, professor of public law at Sciences Po, specialist in constitutional law and political institutions.
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The highest executive body of the lower house validated the first step of an impeachment procedure targeting Emmanuel Macronby 12 votes to 10, on September 17. The leader of La France Insoumise, whose party initiated this request, Mathilde Panot, welcomed this “ unprecedented event in the history of the Fifth Republic “, giving ” See you soon in the Laws Committee to discuss it “However, the procedure has almost no chance of succeeding as it stands.
RFI: How does the impeachment process work in France?
Guillaume Tusseau: It is at the initiative of parliamentarians, either from the Assembly or the Senate. It is a purely political procedure, it does not involve any judge, magistrate or Court of Justice at all. Parliamentarians initiate the procedure, as they did today. [mardi 17 septembre, NDLR]the office of the first Assembly checks the admissibility. There must be an argument that suggests that the president acted badly to launch the impeachment procedure. And if these procedural conditions are met, the office declares the proposal admissible and it goes to the examination in the Laws Committee of the first Assembly seized. Then, it will be examined in plenary session where two thirds of the members of the first assembly seized vote for the impeachment.
When will the vote in the Laws Committee take place?
According to the organic law for the application of article 68 of the Constitution, the voting period is 15 days.
Does this impeachment project against President Emmanuel Macron have a “ chance ” to reach the Senate?
No, because two-thirds of the Assembly must be in favour. This is two-thirds of the members, not just those present on the day of the vote. We are therefore starting from the 577 members who make up the National Assembly. This is the largest majority required in the Constitution. There is therefore very little chance that two-thirds of the members will vote for the resolution and therefore that the text will be transmitted to the Senate.
There may be a majority of MPs who politically disapprove of the dissolution, who disapprove the appointment of Michel Barnierwho disapprove of the fact that he has much awaited before appointing a Prime Minister. But does this fall within the definition of a breach of duty that is manifestly incompatible with the exercise of one’s function? Here, I am more sceptical about the fact that many deputies share this analysis.
Then there are the political calculations. The National Rally (RN) will be quite happy to let La France Insoumise attempt an operation that destabilizes the president and the institutions. The RN can counterbalance this image by saying “Look how I have a rather pacifying attitude, even if I think no less about Emmanuel Macron’s action”. So in the calculations, it is very possible that the different groups will not associate themselves with the approach. And then there is also the fact of associating themselves with a text that is initially supported by LFI, which is a deterrent for a certain number of groups.
If this process is doomed to failure from the start, what could be LFI’s motivation?
This is an act of political politicking in the very mediocre sense, because it is just stirring up trouble, creating buzz. But we can also consider that it is a political act in the nobler and more symbolic sense. In its eyes, LFI believes that the President of the Republic has not taken into account the result of the legislative elections and that it violates the duties of a head of state in a parliamentary regime.
From this point of view, La France Insoumise believes that refuse to appoint Lucie Castets This summer, dragging out the appointment of the government and appointing a Prime Minister from the party that has been in free fall for ten years in electoral terms is outside the missions that fall to a parliamentary head of state.
Will Emmanuel Macron’s popularity suffer from this impeachment process, even if he remains in office?
No, I don’t think so. It’s an epiphenomenon in constitutional law textbooks. He will be the first president against whom a procedure of this type has been initiated and in this way. It’s not going to strengthen his popularity by saying how badly he is treated by parties like LFI, but it’s not going to weaken him either.
How is this different from the impeachment process in the United States?
In the United States, the procedure is different because the tasks of the two chambers are not the same. The House of Representatives votes on impeachment, which is the indictment, and the Senate judges. When impeachment is voted on, there are usually articles of impeachment that accuse the president of having done something reprehensible. This happened once with Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, and twice for Donald Trump.
Then the Senate votes on articles of impeachment, and it takes a supermajority to remove a president. It is because supermajorities are hard to come by that no president has ever been impeached.