A proposal to impeach President Emmanuel Macron has passed a key hurdle in the French National Assembly, winning the approval of its executive bureau.
The bureau, the National Assembly’s 21-member cross-party leadership, ruled on September 17 that the impeachment proposal was admissible.
The hard-left La France Insoumise party introduced the impeachment motion as a result of the decision by Macron, on August 26, to refuse to appoint the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance’s candidate as prime minister.
“The transmission of the motion to impeach Macron is adopted,” LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced on X.
Clearing this hurdle meant the attempt to remove Macron progressed further than a 2016 attempt by conservative Les Républicains MPs to end former president François Hollande’s term. That effort was defeated in the bureau.
Mélenchon also called for street marches in support of Macron’s impeachment. “Where there is a will. There is a way. And on September 21, march with the young people for the impeachment of Macron.”
Under a procedure set out in the Constitution’s article 68, the impeachment motion next moves to the Assembly’s Law Committee for its approval.
If it clears that hurdle, the National Assembly must then adopt the impeachment motion by a two-thirds majority within fifteen days.
Neither the LFI nor the entire left-wing alliance could achieve that number of votes on their own. So they would need the support of other parties–ideally, for the motion’s backers, the right-wing National Rally.
Marine Le Pen, however, said Macron was extremely unlikely to be impeached.
“In an attempt to make people forget its multiple compromises with Macronie, the far-left is defending a procedure for impeaching the President of the Republic that has no chance of succeeding given the divisions on the left,” she said on X.
“This smokescreen manoeuvre will not make the French forget that LFI came to Macron’s aid in 2017, and did it again in 2022 before negotiating electoral agreements to withdraw in June 2024 to save their seats,” she added.
Despite their differences, the Left managed to unite in the vote in the National Assembly’s executive bureau. The 12 left-wing MPs voted in favour of the proposal, securing a majority in the committee of 21.
It remained to be seen whether this apparent unity could sustained.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure was sceptical , saying “this procedure, which requires 2/3 of the votes in both assemblies, will not succeed, everyone knows that.”
A failed impeachment attempt would only benefit Macron, argued Faure.
“In the end, this rejection will offer the President a re-legitimisation that he does not deserve,” he added.
La France Insoumise hoped public pressure would help maintain the Left’s unity, and shift responsibility for impeaching an “unpopular” Macron onto the hard-right National Rally.
More than 300,000 people have signed the hard-left La France Insoumise's petition calling for French President Emmanuel Macron’s impeachment, the party has announced. https://t.co/Hdaxbnoi5J
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 17, 2024
