Referendum threatened: the Senate reformulates the text adopted by the Assembly.

We remember the great disappointment of the members of the Citizen's Climate Convention when the proposition of “crime of ecocide” was replaced by “offense of ecocide” . The accusations of wanting to undermine the intentions of the movement and to empty a good part of the report, returned to the government, of its content, had then been well underway.

Once again, the semantics are likely to be a source of annoyance when attacking the draft law inspired by the CCC concerning article 1 of the Constitution. On March 16, the National Assembly adopted the initial text: "France guarantees the preservation of the environment and biological diversity and the fight against climate change". Following this, the LREM reporter of the text to the National Assembly, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, recalled that "The presidential majority kept its commitments by voting word for word on the CCC proposal". Recall that President Macron also pledged to organize a referendum on the climate.

However, the prospect of this referendum has just faded. The Senate, composed of a majority of right-wing elected representatives, rejects the text as it stands and proposed to replace it with: "France preserves the environment as well as biological diversity and acts against climate change, under the conditions provided for. by the environmental charter ”.

For the executive, LR's desire to scuttle the referendum project is beyond doubt. The macronist Laurent Bonnaterre immediately reacted by declaring: “There, they did not go dead hand. They have withdrawn all the action verbs when we are no longer in the time of the incantation! A referendum to say that water is wet, that does not make sense ”. And the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, to add: “But today the ball is in the court of the Senate. (...) There is today a will, obviously of the senators, to torpedo the proposal of the Citizen's Convention on the climate ” .

If the government wants to be able to organize the referendum, the text must be adopted identically by the National Assembly and the Senate. However, the reformulation of the text prevents this. "If the senators do not vote for this proposal" inspired by the CCC, "that means that they prevent the holding of a referendum" , insists the spokesperson for the government.

Each side returns the ball. For the LR group, this is clearly a government maneuver. Bruno Retailleau, the president of the LR group in the upper house declared that "even before the Senate has voted anything and that the discussion with the National Assembly does not begin, Emmanuel Macron accuses us of blocking to justify the cancellation of a referendum he did not want. Maneuver and hypocrisy will be the hallmarks of this last year in office ” . Senator LR Céline Boulay-Espéronnier went even further by declaring: "Make no mistake about it," adds Senator LR Céline Boulay-Espéronnier. Stuck between the regional elections and the end of the five-year term, the window of opportunity is too thin for them. So the majority takes the responsibility of withdrawing the referendum because they realize that it is not well put together. But they want to put the hat on to the senators ”.

For its part, the government reaffirmed through its spokesperson its desire to maintain the referendum and rejects the responsibility on the LR party: “the Senate adopted in committee a text which is not the one the citizens had. proposed and probably seeks to bury (the referendum). He can still change his mind. We want this referendum to take place, we don't bury it at all ”. "It is the commitment of the President of the Republic" he added.

The test is currently being discussed in public session. If at the end of the discussions, the two versions are still not identical, the text to return to the National Assembly and start its "shuttle" in order to find common ground. As Laurence Maillart-Méhaignerie, LREM president of the National Assembly's sustainable development and land use planning, reminds us: “It is up to the government to decide whether the parliamentary shuttle continues or not. Me, I wish it ”. Sunday, Emmanuel Macron spoke in favor of a rereading of the text. According to him, the text must "live his parliamentary life which alone allows to go to the referendum if the senators and the deputies agree" "The citizens who worked must be respected" and the Parliament "must be respected". He ended by adding: “What I am the guarantor of is that there will be no abandonment. "

All that remains now is to hope that the executive and the Senate conduct constructive negotiations; even if the electoral calendar risks playing the spoilsport. Response in the next few days.