Finally, there is debate. While the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution seemed to achieve consensus on Saturday June 25 between the presidential majority and the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), François Bayrou, president of the MoDem and ally of Emmanuel Macron, distanced himself on Sunday from the Renaissance proposal supported by the government.
After the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to revoke this federal right, the new leader of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, announced on Saturday the tabling of a constitutional bill aimed at registering “respect for the IVG” in the French Constitution. The Prime Minister, followed by several members of the government, immediately “strongly” supported the proposal. But Mr. Bayrou wondered, on BFM-TV, Sunday about the usefulness, “Right now, of going to organize a referendum on this question”.
A constitutional revision requires the adoption of the same text by the Assembly and the Senate, then it must be approved by referendum. Another option: if the revision was launched by the executive, or taken over by it, the text must also be validated by the two chambers but can be submitted to Parliament meeting in Congress, which must vote on it by a three-fifths majority of the votes. votes cast.
“Most people are free to think differently”
“Today, frankly, in the state the country is in with all the issues that we have before us, is it good, is it useful to do that ? Even though, to my knowledge, no political current questions the Veil law and what it has become through the different developments, said Mr. Bayrou, assuming a difference with the government of which his party is one of the allies in the National Assembly. Fortunately, in the majority, we are free to think things differently. »
Sunday, during the program “Political Questions” on France Inter, Adrien Quatennens, the deputy of the North, was also questioned on the question of the parliamentary time that this inscription in the Constitution could take, taking into account the social emergency underlined by the main political formations. “You are right (…), the priority is the social emergency, but I think everyone is seized with dread about what is happening in the United States and that no one saw it coming and that we must take action,” said the national coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI).
“It will take as long as it takes,” he said. I think it’s positive if we manage to convince other groups, in light of the situation in the United States, that this right must be protected in the Constitution, because the future does not tell us whether may or may not be threatened. »
“It is still surprising that it is what is happening in the United States (…) which leads to a certain number of effervescent reactions in French political life”, underlined François Bayrou, who is “not to trace American political life”.
The very conservative Supreme Court of the United States on Friday buried a judgment which, for nearly half a century, guaranteed the right of American women to abortion but had never been accepted by the religious right. In the process, several American states have already announced that they are taking measures to prohibit voluntary terminations of pregnancy on their territory.
The National Rally targeted by the proposal of the presidential majority
The decision was widely condemned in France, from left to right. Emmanuel Macron regretted the “challenging” of women’s freedoms. And the associations for the defense of the right to abortion have worried about a “dangerous signal”.
In 2018, the majority refused this bill from LFI. At the time, several ministers felt that this right was not threatened in France. On Saturday, Aurore Bergé pointed to the new RN deputies “fierce opponents of women’s access to abortion”.
Their president, Marine Le Pen, said on the same day on Twitter that “the RN [had] never violated the right of women to have abortions”. Also on this social network, the acting party president deplored a “diversion” on the part of the government, because “no serious political movement in France calls into question the Veil law, acquired to be protected”. “Where are his contingency plans for purchasing power and against immigration? he wondered. In the ranks of the far-right party in the National Assembly, several deputies have nevertheless displayed positions against abortion in the past.