FRENCH
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
A new Republic: Leftist Mélenchon promises to
topple France’s ‘presidential monarchy’
Issued on:
21/03/2022 - 15:58
Modified:
21/03/2022 - 16:01
Protesters call for a new Republic, in which
presidents are stripped of "monarchical" powers, at a rally in Paris
on March 20, 2022
Text by:
Benjamin
DODMAN
Rising in
the polls, the French election’s dark horse Jean-Luc Mélenchon has promised a
reboot of the French Republic, vowing to overhaul a presidential regime that he
blames for mounting abstention, disillusion and increasingly violent protests.
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Sporting a
prominent French moustache and the Phrygian cap of the revolutionary
Sans-culottes, Johan Pain cut a familiar figure on place de la République in
Paris – the French capital’s traditional protest hub
The
sprawling square, best known for its towering allegorical statue of the French
Republic (coiffed, of course, with a Phrygian cap), has long been a rite of
passage for every left-wing march in town. On Sunday, it was the stage for the
biggest rally of France’s presidential campaign, in support of veteran
campaigner Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling in third with just three weeks to
go before the April 10 vote.
Basking in
the warm sunshine, tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters flocked to hear
Mélenchon promise a reboot of the Republic. Few had travelled as far as Pain,
who made the 500-kilometre trip from Lausanne in Switzerland to back the
leftist firebrand.
“The Fifth
Republic has failed us, it’s a broken system,” Pain, 72, said of the
presidential regime instituted by General Charles de Gaulle, France’s wartime
hero, more than 60 years ago. “I’ve realised this much from living abroad: when
it comes to democracy in Europe, we’re bottom of the league.”
Sunday’s
“March for the Sixth Republic” marked the third such rally since Mélenchon
first ran for the presidency a decade ago. It was a chance for the hard-left
candidate to flex his muscles as he continues his slow but steady rise in the
polls, five years after he narrowly missed out on a place in the all-important
presidential run-off.
The promise
of a new Republic allowed Mélenchon to reach beyond his core support, drawing
people for whom an overhaul of France’s constitution is the priority. Among
them was 32-year-old dance teacher Hélène Lallemand, who quipped that she
showed up “despite Mélenchon, rather than because of him”.
Though no
fan of the firebrand leftist, Lallemand praised his idea of convening a
constituent assembly to draw up a new constitution – “by and for the people” –
and giving voters the power to revoke their representatives. She said such
moves were urgently needed to offset “the mounting voter apathy and disillusion
that are sapping French democracy”.
“It is up
to the people to write their constitution, not a cabinet of experts,” Mélenchon
roared moments later as he addressed the crowd, promising to “breathe new life
into a country that is dying a slow death through abstention.”
The
permanent coup d’état
Apathy and
disillusion have translated into a steady decline in participation at French
elections – leading up to the dismal 35% turnout registered at regional polls
last year, in which the pandemic also played a part. As France’s marquee
election, the presidential contest has traditionally enjoyed stronger
participation, hovering at around 80%. But pollsters are warning that a surge
in abstention threatens to undermine next month’s process.
Last week,
a study commissioned by French daily Le Monde found that fewer than 70% of
French voters were certain they would take part in the first round on April 10.
The number dropped to 53% for the 18-24 age group.
“France is
the only country in the European Union that is witnessing a steady decline in
turnout in all elections, from local to presidential,” said Paul Alliès, a
professor of political science at the University of Montpellier, in an
interview with FRANCE 24. “When it comes to abstention, we’re number one!”
A long-time
advocate of a Sixth Republic, Alliès said rising abstention and increasingly
violent protests are a consequence of a dysfunctional system that invests too
much power and attention on the figure of the president. The corollary of this
lop-sided system, he added, is “a
parliament that is totally impotent”.
“This cult
of the leader, our habit of framing elections as the ‘meeting between a man
(sic) and a people’, it’s all nonsense,” he said. “We have the worst regime in
all of Europe, and it’s fuelling violence and resentment.”
Critics of
the presidential role fashioned by De Gaulle have long complained that it
carries traits of Napoleon’s imperial synthesis, combining elements of France’s
monarchical and revolutionary traditions. The criticism is as old as the system
itself, its central tenet summed up in François Mitterrand’s 1964 pamphlet “The
Permanent Coup d’Etat”.
Mitterrand
accused De Gaulle of betraying the spirit of the constitution by sidelining
parliament and swapping the role of arbiter for that of omnipotent ruler. “By
replacing the national representation with the notion of the leader’s
infallibility, General De Gaulle concentrates the nation’s interest, curiosity
and passions on himself and depoliticises the rest,” wrote the future Socialist
president, who would later play by the same rulebook.
Similar
accusations have been levelled at De Gaulle’s successors, including Mitterand:
presidents ruling from their ivory tower, answerable to nobody; parliaments
stripped of powers and initiative, reduced to rubber-stamping the Elysée
Palace’s directives; prime ministers appointed and dismissed at the president’s
whim, and promptly scapegoated when things go wrong.
In a 2014
study calling for political reform in France, the Peterson Institute for
International Economics said “the era of regularly electing a new king and
regularly tossing him out again should be over in France.”
“France
must change its system, preferably reducing the status of its presidency to the
largely ceremonial level seen in other European republics,” the think-tank
wrote. “At the least, it should (..) remov(e) the president's right to name the
prime minister, call new elections, and serve as commander-in-chief.”
Designed to
legitimise those sweeping powers by ensuring the president wins at least 50% of
the popular vote, France’s two-round electoral system increasingly has the
opposite effect, the study added. It noted that tactical voting aimed at
keeping the far right out of power means the winner “command(s) a negative
political mandate of ‘not being Marine Le Pen’, a leader without a popular
mandate to lead or enact the change France needs.”
Regime
change
Five years
of self-styled "Jupiterian" rule under President Emmanuel Macron have
only exacerbated the problems long flagged by critics of the Fifth Republic,
said Alliès, pointing to the incumbent’s habit of relying on the secrecy of
special “defence councils” to steer the country through the Covid-19 pandemic,
terrorist threats and now the war in Ukraine.
It’s a
theme the Mélenchon campaign has been pushing as it promises an overhaul of
France’s republican regime.
“Over the
past five years, Emmanuel Macron has aggravated every aspect of the solitary
power fostered by the Fifth Republic,” says the leftist candidate’s online
platform. “His predecessors were presidential monarchs; he has become an
absolutist presidential monarch.”
Mélenchon’s
proposals for a Sixth Republic include introducing proportional representation
to make parliament more representative; giving citizens the power to initiate
legislation and referendums, and to revoke their representatives; and scrapping
special powers that currently give France’s executive right to pass legislation
without parliamentary approval.
But those
are just proposals. The candidate for La France insoumise (France Unbowed) says
it will be up to the people to decide on their next constitution. Never one to
miss a revolutionary reference, he has promised to convene a constituent
assembly whose members will be either elected or drawn by lots. Their draft
constitution will then be submitted to the people via referendum.
The veteran
leftist is hardly the first presidential candidate to call for a Sixth
Republic. In past elections, it was not uncommon for a majority of candidates –
not all of them left-wingers – to back the idea of sweeping constitutional
reform. Their proposals often differed, some advocating a parliamentary regime
with a strong prime minister while others called for scrapping the PM’s job
altogether.
“Traditionally,
only two parties have always supported the Fifth Republic – the mainstream
centre-left and mainstream centre-right,” said Alliès. “It’s easy to see why:
they’re the ones who enjoyed the regime’s sweeping powers.”
Therein
lies the main difficulty for advocates of regime change, Alliès added:
“Essentially, you need a candidate who is willing to take the huge powers of
the Fifth Republic and give them back to the people.”
‘Don’t
disappoint me, Jean-Luc’
Since the
Revolution of 1789, France has had no shortage of regime changes, but all of
them have coincided with times of great turmoil – whether revolutions, wars or
coup d’états. The Fifth Republic may be experiencing difficulties, but it is
not yet in terminal crisis. It has also proven to be relatively malleable,
allowing for 24 constitutional revisions since its inception.
During
Macron’s term, the presidential regime weathered one crisis with game-changing
potential: the Yellow Vest insurgency, one of the most potent and contagious
protest movements in recent French history. It was eventually smothered through
a combination of tax breaks, police crackdowns and a "Great National
Debate", which France’s ubiquitous president soon turned into a town-hall
road-show offering him unrivalled media coverage.
The
high-visibility jackets were easily spotted at Sunday’s rally in Paris, where
the Yellow Vests’ flagship demand for a “citizens’ initiative referendum” –
which Mélenchon has included among his proposals for a Sixth Republic –
featured prominently on placards and banners.
“The people
have been stripped of all power and so have our representatives in parliament,”
said primary school teacher Christine Arlandis, who described herself as a
Yellow Vest at heart, even though she did not wear a gilet jaune.
“I’m voting
for Mélenchon so that he gets rid of the Fifth Republic,” she added, blaming
the current regime for “dismantling France’s social model and devitalising its
democracy.”
In 1988, an
18-year-old Arlandis cast her very first presidential vote for Mitterrand, who
would famously make the most of the very presidential powers he had previously
decried. More than three decades later, she is not certain she can trust
Mélenchon to surrender those powers should he clinch the presidency.
“I was
wrong to trust Mitterrand back then, but I’m willing to risk it again because
this is our last chance to revive democracy,” she said, holding up a sign with
the words, “Don’t disappoint me, Jean-Luc”.
She added:
“If we fail, then that’s it. I won’t vote again.”
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