Latest on impeachment proceedings against Macron from French left
A motion to impeach the president is under scrutiny and may soon be voted on by MPs
France’s far-left party wants to impeach President Emmanuel Macron for "serious failings" in his constitutional duties
Gints Ivuskans/Shutterstock
A motion of impeachment against French President Emmanuel Macron brought forward by far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) will now be voted on in the Assemblée nationale.
It passed its first round of parliamentary scrutiny this morning (September 17), with 12 members of a 22-person committee voting for the motion to move forward.
The proposal is unlikely to succeed, however, as not enough MPs will vote in favour of it, nor will Senators from France’s other political chamber back the motion.
Allies of the LFI, including MPs from the Socialist Party, said they would not vote in favour of impeaching the president.
Read more: When will the members of France’s new government be announced?
How does the process work?
The rules for bringing forward an impeachment motion (procédure de destitution) against the French president are set out in Article 68 of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.
It requires signatures from 60 or more MPs sitting in the Assemblée nationale (one-tenth of the chamber) to be officially brought forward – the motion from the LFI garnered over 80.
Alternatively, it can be brought forward in the Senate, also needing one-tenth of Senators (around 35) to sign the motion.
The LFI’s proposal passed this threshold for votes from MPs, and will undergo a first stage of scrutiny from today (Tuesday September 17).
It must pass through the bureau of the Assemblée nationale, the internal executive body responsible for assessing such motions, before going to a wider vote in the chamber.
The LFIs proposal narrowly passed this stage, after the Socialist Party confirmed late last night it would not block the motion despite none of its MPs originally backing it.
The left-wing Nouveau Front Populair (NFP) alliance controls 12 of the 22 seats in the bureau, with all members voting in favour for the motion to be moved forward.
If it passes, the motion will be brought forward for MPs to vote on in the coming weeks, with two-thirds needed to vote in favour of the bill.
If this happens, then the bill moves forward to the opposite chamber (in this case, into the Senate), where two-thirds of members there must also vote in favour.
No sitting president has been impeached under the Fifth Republic, although a vote to impeach François Hollande – brought forward in 2016 by right-wing Les Républicains MPs, made it to a vote in the Assemblée nationale.
Read more: New protests in France against Macron and Barnier planned for September 21
Not enough MPs to vote for impeachment
The LFI vote is extremely unlikely to gain enough votes in the Assemblée nationale.
The group – which has 72 MPs – is on its own far short of a majority, and even if all of its allies in the NFP voted in favour, they would still only have around half of the MPs needed to pass the vote.
Therefore, it would also need votes to come from the far-right Rassemblement National, and even some centrists belonging to the president’s group in the chamber, which will not happen.
Read more: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen loses appeal in defamation case
MPs from the Socialist Party have confirmed they will not vote in favour of impeaching the president, as they believe it will give “legitimacy” to Mr Macron’s tenure.
“We are resolutely opposed to this impeachment procedure,” they said last night, after announcing they would not block the passage through the bureau.
The procedure “will essentially consist in putting the President of the Republic back at the centre of political debate and giving him a new legitimacy… [and is] doomed to failure,” they added.
“We do not want to give Emmanuel Macron any victories. Power is no longer at the Élysée, it is in Parliament.”
In the extremely unlikely event that the motion passes through the Assemblée nationale, it has even less chance of making its way through the Senate.
The Senate is dominated by right of centre parties, and it would be essentially impossible for the few left-wing members to convince enough of their adversaries to vote in favour of the bill.
