The deputies approved at first reading by 391 votes for this constitutional revision project which aims to include the climate in the Constitution.

One more step towards the referendum wanted by the Head of State.

It is now the Senate that will have to look into the issue in May. 

By a large vote, the National Assembly approved Tuesday the inclusion of the climate in the Constitution, before the Senate with a right-wing majority seized in May on this subject on which Emmanuel Macron wants a referendum.

The deputies approved at first reading this draft constitutional revision by 391 votes in favor, those of the majority and part of the left, 47 against and 115 abstentions. 

A handful of LREM and MoDem criticized this text, putting the environment in competition with the freedom to undertake in particular.

The oppositions perceive it sometimes as "symbolic", sometimes as a "coup de com '" of the Head of State, "camouflaging renouncements" ecological.

"A major breakthrough"

"We are heading towards the referendum promised by the President of the Republic", welcomed for his part the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti after the election, while parliamentarians doubt his organization.

Following the recommendations of the Citizens' Convention on the Climate, it is a question of engraving in Article 1 of the Basic Law that France "guarantees the preservation of the environment and biological diversity and the fight against climate change".

The Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili hailed on Twitter "a major step forward".

Barbara Pompili carries in parallel the vast bill "climate and resilience" and its battery of measures on housing or advertising, also resulting from the Citizens' Convention.

https://t.co/8rr3l1bgle

- Barbara Pompili (@barbarapompili) March 16, 2021

The Socialists and Communists supported the constitutional text, even if they would have liked to include a principle of "non-regression" in environmental matters.

Conversely, the rebels castigate "a green pastille that Emmanuel Macron intends to put in the Constitution" and spoke out against a "useless project".

The LR elected representatives overwhelmingly abstained, 20 of them voting against "a supreme environmental standard" and "a government of judges behind".

"The right which has always been at the rendezvous of ecology is bitter," said their speaker Julien Aubert, who does not want to prevent a consultation of the French in the Gaullist tradition.

During the debates last week, none of the 400 or so amendments by the deputies, to go further or on the contrary slow down, was adopted.

The agreement of the Assembly and the Senate necessary for a referendum

The socialist Gérard Leseul denounced "a blocked and atrophied discussion", LR evoking a majority advancing like a "Roman tortoise".

But Eric Dupond-Moretti insists that "the debate has been complete" and insists: "We are proud of this founding text".

The president of RN Marine Le Pen, who also intends to invest in this ecological field with a view to the presidential election, presented to the press her counter-project for consulting the French, with 15 questions from nuclear to wind turbines.

There is no need to modify Article 1 of the Constitution for RN deputies, while the Environmental Charter is mentioned in the Preamble of the Basic Law.

But Ms. Le Pen did not defend her positions in the hemicycle, which the minister pinned.

The organization of a referendum requires the prior agreement of the National Assembly and the Senate on the same text.

"Act" rather than "guarantee"

The environmentalist and ex-LREM deputy Matthieu Orphelin kept asking the Minister of Justice if he had already started discussions with the Senate to save time and not compromise the organization of a referendum under this five-year term .

However, the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher (LR) warned the executive against any temptation to "do a blow".

In this battle of words on article 1 of the Constitution, he favors the verb "to act" for the preservation of the environment, rather than "to guarantee".

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Without success, the right at the Palais-Bourbon has already worked to change this term.

Beyond, deputies of all stripes pushed a string of subjects, from retreats to local traditions through security.

Even what was voted in 2018 during the failed attempt to reform institutions has not been validated.

The deputies have repeatedly rebelled against this constitutional revision which reduces the Assembly to "a registration chamber", according to François-Michel Lambert (Liberties and Territories).

"The Citizens' Convention is not the Sacred College of the Vatican, the 'filter' is us," said Julien Aubert to the right.