More than 300,000 thousand people have signed a petition by the La France Insoumise (LFI) party calling for the impeachment of French President Emmanuel Macron, Brussels Signal reports.
The petition was designed to pressure French lawmakers to begin the process of impeaching Macron. LFI released the number of signatories on September 16. The petition’s website said:
By signing this petition, we ask the deputies and senators to vote in favour of the process to allow the return to a true democracy where the choices of the people are finally respected.
The party accused the president of “authoritarian” drift: he “refuses to accept the results of legislative elections and blocks the implementation of any programme other than his own.”
After national elections in June, Macron refused to appoint left-wing candidate Lucie Castets as prime minister, despite the left-wing coalition winning the most seats in parliament. Instead, the president chose right-wing candidate and former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier of the Republican Party.
The impeachment process, allowed by Article 68 of the French Constitution, is due to pass its first stage on September 17.
The highest collegiate body of the National Assembly, the executive bureau, must rule on the admissibility of the proposed impeachment procedure. The bureau may decide to launch the procedure because the Left Alliance has a majority in it – 12 out of 22 seats.
There are reportedly some divisions among leftist deputies, and the Socialists have rejected a similar proposal in the past.
On August 18, Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, distanced himself from the threat, stressing that the initiative came only from the LFI.
At the Fête de l’Humanité festival on September 14, where leftist leaders, activists and prominent figures from France and around the world gathered, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged his allies not to block the procedure. He said:
We call on our NFP [left-wing coalition] allies to vote to send it [impeachment process] to the Law Commission. The only battles we are sure to lose are the ones we don’t fight.
The leftist party also called on supporters to join a call by youth branches of trade unions to hold a protest against the president on September 21.
Under French law, Macron can be removed from office “only in the event of a failure to fulfil his duties that is manifestly incompatible with the performance of his office.” If the impeachment process is initiated, it would seek to determine whether such non-performance has occurred.
