Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday that he "wanted" the climate referendum to take place.

He accuses the Senate of wanting to "prevent the holding of a referendum" by not voting the bill aiming to include climate protection in the Constitution.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal "wished" this Sunday that the referendum on the climate take place, accusing the Senate of "torpedoing" the bill aiming to include climate protection in the Constitution to "prevent it from being held. ". 

"Obviously we want the referendum to take place. It is the commitment of the President of the Republic", declared on France 3 the representative of the government.

"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 (CCC), estimated Gabriel Attal.

Prevent a referendum from being held?

The bill inspired by the CCC serious in article 1 of the Constitution that France "guarantees the preservation of the environment and biological diversity and the fight against climate change". However, the majority of the Senate, on the right, rejects the term "guarantees", which according to it gives the preservation of the environment a form of priority over other constitutional principles.

"If the senators do not vote for this proposal" inspired by the CCC, "it means that they prevent the holding of a referendum", according to the spokesman of the government.

Constitutional revision is only possible if the text is adopted in identical terms by the Assembly and the Senate.

The revision can then, at the choice of the president, be either submitted to a referendum or to Parliament meeting in Congress.

The modification of the article "is not in any way buried", according to the Elysee

The senators "adopted in committee a text which is not that which the citizens had proposed".

"We want this referendum to take place, we do not bury it at all. The Senate is probably trying to bury it. It can still change its mind since the text will be discussed in public session in the coming days," a developed Gabriel Attal.

The JDD affirms that Emmanuel Macron gave up the ballot, triggering the wrath of environmentalists who demonstrate this Sunday in marches for the climate.

The modification of article 1 of the Constitution "is not in any way buried", assured the Elysee this Sunday, without evoking the referendum by which the president wished to validate this change of the Basic Law.