The LFI party argues that democracy must be protected from the “authoritarian tendencies of the president”
The French left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) has released a motion and is gathering signatures to remove President Emmanuel Macron from office after he refused to nominate the coalition’s candidate as prime minister.
The LFI is part of the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance along with the Socialists, Communists and Greens, which emerged as the winner of snap parliamentary elections called by Macron earlier this year. However, the coalition failed to secure an outright majority, forcing Macron to enter negotiations to appoint a new prime minister and form a government. On Monday, the French leader rejected the NFP’s candidate, Lucie Castets, for the post, arguing that a left-wing government would threaten “institutional stability”.
“The draft resolution to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the Republic, under the terms of article 68 of the Constitution, was sent today to parliamentarians for joint signature,” LFI parliamentary leader Mathilde Panot wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
To begin impeachment proceedings, the LFI group, which has 72 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, must collect signatures from at least one-tenth of the parliament’s members under its motion. Article 68 of the French Constitution stipulates that the action could be implemented “in the event of a breach of duty manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate.”
“Macron refuses to submit to the people’s vote, so we must fire him,” Panot explained, sharing the sketch of the resolution, which stated that “The National Assembly (lower house) and the Senate can and must defend democracy against the authoritarian tendencies of the president.”
Lawmakers argued that it is not up to the president “to make political negotiations”, referring to Macron’s struggle to find a new prime minister since accepting Gabriel Attal’s resignation last month.
Meanwhile, the French media noted that it would be difficult to find a new PM “who would not be immediately removed by a vote of confidence.”
Macron called a snap election in June after his centrist Ensemble bloc’s poor showing in the European polls. After the first round of domestic voting saw Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) party emerge as the favorite, Macron came up with a last-minute “strategic voting” deal with the NFP to prevent the RN from securing a majority in the National Assembly.
Although Macron’s bloc came second in the election, the president has the sole power to appoint the prime minister, who is not formally obliged to be the candidate of the winning party.
The RN, which came third in the National Assembly vote, declared it would block any candidate from the left-wing alliance, arguing that the NFP represents “a danger to public order, civil peace and, obviously, to the economic life of the country.”
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