Laurent Fabius has not left the reserve to which he is legally bound, but almost. On the occasion of the official opening of the period of collection of sponsorships for the presidential election, the president of the Constitutional Council wanted this Tuesday, January 25 to sound the alarm. In question, “those who affirm that the people are sovereign and that consequently an institution like the Constitutional Council does not have to interfere when the people express themselves, by referendum or following a law voted by their representatives ". In the line of sight of the former Prime Minister of François Mitterrand - who never quotes them, however, all the candidates for the Élysée, in particular on the right and especially on the far right for whom the referendum must prevail over the law, the constitution and its main principles, those of 1789,of the 1946 Preamble and the 2004 Environmental Charter.
“The people decide and not the Constitutional Council”, proclaims Éric Zemmour who, systematically, vilifies what he considers to be “the government of judges”. From the candidate for the Reconquest to Marine Le Pen, Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier, both then in the running for the "primary" of the Republicans, all pleaded for a referendum to deploy migration policies - for some, it is the reform of family reunification or the right of asylum, for others the abolition of jus soli — policies of security or secularism based solely on the “national will”.
Fundamental changes which, according to Laurent Fabius, would pose a real legal problem and would therefore not be so simple to implement.
“Those who, like General de Gaulle in 1962 with the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage, believe they can rely on Article 11 and the only referendum to revise the constitution are all wrong, he warns.
First, because General de Gaulle is not the one who wants it.
Then, because any revision of the Constitution must be based not on article 11 but on article 89”, an article which only provides for a referendum if the draft revision does not receive the vote of three-fifths of parliamentarians.
The race for 500 sponsorships will begin this Thursday
“One of the characteristics of advanced democracies like ours is that the law, whether passed by Parliament or the result of a referendum, cannot do anything and must comply to the Constitution and the main principles, insisted Laurent Fabius.
It is the role of the Constitutional Council set up by the Fifth Republic to monitor and control this conformity.
This explains why so-called democratic regimes, such as may exist within Europe itself, have the constitutional courts at gunpoint.
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The President of the Constitutional Council also announced that the race for 500 sponsorships will begin this Thursday with the publication of the decree convening voters which must be adopted the day before in the Council of Ministers. The 42,000 elected officials authorized to sponsor a candidate will have until Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m. to send the direct deposit by post to the headquarters of the Constitutional Council. The latter will "online on its site twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, the list updated in real time of sponsorships", he explained.
As for the online publication of the names of mayors and elected officials who give their signature to a candidate who is regularly challenged by candidates in need of sponsorship, Laurent Fabius acknowledged that it "would undoubtedly be good democratic practice for this question, which comes up all the same each time, if it has to be examined and decided, it should be done at the beginning of the mandate rather than at the end when we come up against deadlines".
On good terms…