Divided National Assembly, Prime Minister in difficulty, becalmed budget… Faced with Emmanuel Macron’s inability to govern since the dissolution, the little music concerning a possible resignation continues to resonate. The latest to sound the death knell: Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), who sent a letter this Friday, November 29 to Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of the Interior, to find out the organizational arrangements for an early presidential election.
This letter is in line with several calls for resignation issued in recent days. If the rebels have been demanding it for several weeks, the National Rally deputy Sébastien Chenu, the former president of the UMP Jean-François Copé or even the general budget rapporteur at the National Assembly, Charles de Courson, are now demanding the departure of Macron.
Let’s be clear: despite various calls, the issue does not seem to be on the table. Questioned during a press conference at the Elysée on June 12, a few days after his side’s setback in the European elections, the President had already brushed aside the subject. “It’s absurd, he replied. I want to wring the neck of this duck that doesn’t exist.” A resignation which would not resolve the current political crisis in the country.
If for the moment it is an exercise in pure political fiction, the Constitution of the Fifth Republic nevertheless leaves the possibility for the head of state to leave office. Libé takes stock.
What does the Constitution say?
First of all, resignation: Emmanuel Macron can leave his mandate. If the Constitution does not specifically mention this scenario, there is nothing to oppose it in the texts. The President announces his choice to the Constitutional Council and the presidential vacancy begins.
On the other hand, the Constitution and its article 7 clearly define the time limit provided for the organization of early presidential elections. Whether in the event of death or resignation, they must be held “twenty days at least and thirty-five days at most” after the start of the presidential vacancy. During this period, presidential functions are exercised by the President of the Senate, today Gérard Larcher (LR).
How is the campaign organized?
This point is the center of mail from Manuel Bompard to Bruno Retailleau. “I would like to ask you to inform the different political forces of the arrangements for organizing such an election”writes the Marseille MP in his missive, also published on social networks.
According to the law relating to presidential elections by universal suffrage, the government must publish the list of candidates “at least fifteen days before the first round of voting”. As with traditional presidential elections, candidates must receive 500 endorsements from local elected officials but in a very short time. Especially since applications must be sent to the Constitutional Council “no later than the third Tuesday preceding the first round of voting at 6 p.m.”. Let’s imagine for a moment the following situation: the election is organized 35 days after the resignation of Emmanuel Macron and the candidacies are sent twenty days before the first round, which would therefore only leave two weeks of campaigning for the official candidates.
This restricted deadline also applies to the State services which organize the election. From printing campaign posters to voting ballots, several steps will have to be taken urgently.
Who are the declared candidates?
Even if the next presidential election officially takes place in April 2027, several politicians are not wasting their time and have already declared themselves candidates in recent months. Unsurprisingly, Marine Le Pen is “the natural candidate” of the National Rally, to use her own expression during an interview for TF1 on September 18, 2023. But if she wishes to be part of it, the threat of ineligibility, which could be pronounced if she is convicted in the trial of parliamentary assistants of the RN, hovers over her. In this case, she would logically be replaced by the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella.
Another confident candidate: Edouard Philippe. Emmanuel Macron’s former Prime Minister came out of the woods on September 3. An announcement which surprised his camp, while Emmanuel Macron, weakened by the results in the legislative elections, was struggling to find a head of government. The president of Horizons put an end to a suspense that was not really one, by officially declaring himself a candidate. But if his party is one of the entities in the presidential camp, it has not yet been decided whether there will be a single Macronist candidate or not. Especially since other executives, Gérald Darmanin and Gabriel Attal in the lead, intend to play the leading roles. On the right, the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand has also declared himself a candidate, although his party Les Républicains have not yet officially chosen their foal.
On the left, no candidate has declared themselves for the moment, even if some are already trying to impose themselves. The rebels want to see Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has suggested that he could run. In a falsely vague game, the leader of LFI assured again this summer that he had not “not yet said (that he will be) a candidate”. If the New Popular Front had campaigned together in the last legislative elections, the decision has not yet been made for the next presidential election, while relations are strained between the four parties.
Source: www.liberation.fr
