EDITORIAL
Comparison is not right, they say! And yet, it is often by comparing that we take the measure of what we have lost by believing we have won!
And, in the end, it is often the voice of common sense that wins! This is what came to mind when reading this article by Guillaume Larrivé (see below), LR deputy from Yonne.
I have been fighting for decades to return to a representative and parliamentary Republic. Admittedly, our Fifth Republic is parliamentary, but only the constitutionalists know it, and few of them want to say it out loud as the myth of the Presidential Regime is anchored in this country.
This anchoring is the result of several decades of ideological hype on the part of the Gaullists, an attitude which will be relayed, later, by the Center and then by the Left, and this, thanks to the electoral results and, above all, because advantages that this gave to those who were at the helm of power.
Hence the interest of the position of Guillaume Larrivé, from the Gaullist ranks.
Interest all the greater as his vision of his Sixth Republic is totally different from that of Mélenchon, or even from that towards which Arnaud Montebourg had evolved, or even that of Bayrou!
Guillaume Larrivé's vision is that of Anglo-Saxon parliamentarism, a primo-ministerial construction that perfectly suits a multi-partisan tradition such as ours!
This drift of the Fifth Republic since 1962 is due, as he says so well, to "the illusion of the omnipotence of the President of the Republic" ! An illusion that weakens parliament when it is, and remains, the emanation of people's power in our Constitution and the heart of our democracy.
The shortcomings and bias resulting from the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage have become an insurmountable obstacle for our democracy with the five-year term and the reversal of the calendar.
The election of queen in a democracy, the election of Parliament, has only become incidental to that of the President of the Republic.
This election is all the more misleading in that the two-round election gives the false impression that voters mostly agree with the program of the President-elect while, in fact, they are only rejecting that of the other survivor of the First Round vote.
The natural consequence of this imbroglio is that the resigned voters refuse to take part in the legislative elections which follow; and this is how, from election to election, participation in legislative elections fell from more than 80% to less than 40%!
Moreover, the deputies, persuaded (sometimes rightly) that they were only elected as foals and subjects of the prince, themselves renounced their prerogatives and their authority. Parliamentarians are now only the subjects, not to say the objects, of the Prince-President!
Especially since the single-member election in two rounds amplifies the undemocratic and unrepresentative nature of this parliament.
The result is clear and irremediable: after the euphoria of the moment and the recurrent hope of the people in the providential man who would bring us to "happiness", it is the disappointment and the collapse of popularity of the one who had been, the time of an election, bearer of hope!
Farewell calves, cows, pig,…
Thus, just after the election, the cry of the people shakes France: "The king is dead, long live the king ! »… But soon after… it's rather “hope is dead, long live despair and the sling” !
It is this evil gear that prevents the implementation of real reforms supported by a majority of French people; it is this evil spiral that must be broken to restore hope and confidence to the people and not only to the elites!
Yes, certainly, with Guillaume Larrivé, the voice of common sense has spoken!
Long live democracy!
Long live the Sixth Republic!
Long live the Sixth Parliamentary Republic!
Long live the sovereign people!
Long live the hope of France and its people!
Richard C. ABITBOL
Chairman
ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN LE FIGARO
THE POLITICAL SCAN
THE POLITICAL SCAN – The spokesperson for the Republicans has joined the ranks of supporters of the Sixth Republic. A rarity on the right.
If we knew the immoderate penchant of Cécile Duflot, Benoît Hamon, Claude Bartolone and of course Jean-Luc Mélenchon for the Sixth Republic, we would not have bet on that of LR Guillaume Larrivé. And yet, this Friday, on BFMTV and RMC, the former "Sarko-boy" urged "the French right to prepare, perhaps, the conditions for a Sixth Republic, for a different democratic functioning."
Immediately, the journalist cried out: “VIth Republic, the word is out! It makes me think of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Arnaud Montebourg”. This led the deputy of Yonne to clarify his point: “Beyond the number of the Republic, we must talk about the content. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's model is the model of the Venezuelan dictatorship, so it's not really my kind of beauty."
In the sights of the LR spokesperson: the election of the president by direct universal suffrage
If Guillaume Larrivé advocates the emergence of a Sixth Republic, it is to erase "the disadvantages of the French presidential system". One of the points that bothers Guillaume Larrivé the most in the Fifth Republic is the election, every five years, of the president by direct universal suffrage. This "meeting of a man and a people", decided in 1962 is, however, one of the ferments of Gaullism-political heritage that right-wing troops logically claim.
The LR spokesman deplores "the illusion of the omnipotence of the President of the Republic". For him, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron in power has further strengthened this myth of the super-president who guarantees in the end a "huge disappointment". Guillaume Larrivé pleads for “a system where we first have the election of deputies to the National Assembly on their name, on their ideas. And the choice, among the National Assembly, of a Prime Minister with real ministers who do the job.
A weakening of Parliament
In the mouths of all of its critics, the Fifth Republic is accused of concentrating all powers in the hands of the president, which would contribute to weakening Parliament.
Guillaume Larrivé rallied to the anti V Republic sling after having meditated on the course of the presidential election. The deputy does not digest the election of Emmanuel Macron who was carried to the second round by only 24% of the votes. "He was elected by default, on a fairly small base", denounces Guillaume Larrivé who also criticizes the electoral calendar of the current system.
With the passage from the seven-year term to the five-year term, the presidential mandate has been aligned with that of the Assembly and the legislative elections have practically become votes confirming the results of the presidential election. The scenario is classic, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande took advantage of it before Emmanuel Macron. But this time, the surge of the presidential majority on the Assembly has been such that criticisms have rocketed, one of them explaining in particular that "even a goat in the colors of En Marchecould have been elected. With the transition to the Sixth Republic, the LR spokesman would therefore like to abolish the system which carries within it the concentration of too much power in the hands of the sole winner of the presidential election.
Source: © Le Figaro Premium – Guillaume Larrivé (LR) calls for a Sixth Republic
