"I have a deep split with the far-right candidate, it's that I am for reforming the Constitution by respecting the rules of the Constitution, which seems to me precisely to be the very definition of belonging to the republican field" , declared the president-candidate to France Culture in an interview recorded on Friday and broadcast six days before the second round.

"Ms. Le Pen in her project proposes a reform of the Constitution by referendum which is not in conformity with the Constitution, which is a problem. Others do it in other countries, it is done very well in Hungary, it allows you to change a regime by hand, but, I denounce it”, he continued in reference to the authoritarian inclinations of Viktor Orban.

"The implicit in Mrs. Le Pen's approach is that basically, once elected, she considers that she is superior to the Constitution, since she may not respect it to change the rules, that it's a break, and it's serious", pointed out Mr. Macron.

The RN candidate intends to submit to referendum her draft constitutional revision on immigration and the registration of the "national priority".

But since the referendums of 1962 and 1969, case law no longer makes it a priori possible to change the Constitution by a simple referendum via article 11. It is necessary to go through article 89 which implies that the constitutional revision must first be voted in identical terms by the Assembly and the Senate.

Ms. Le Pen also intends to revise the supreme text to establish the citizens' initiative referendum (RIC) and "to make it easier to organize referendums on all subjects".

Marine Le Pen during a trip to Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, in Eure-et-Loir, on April 16, 2022 JULIEN DE ROSA AFP

Mr. Macron for his part wants to "modernize" the Constitution and the "institutional functioning" by associating "all the political forces which are present in the two chambers", to have a chance of succeeding within the current constitutional framework.

He would launch a "transpartisan commission" for this.

He added on Monday that "in the same way, when (Marine Le Pen) says she is ready to submit a referendum to reverse the death penalty, it is not in conformity with the Constitution, short of being a deep regression on, in my eyes, what is an achievement of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic".

From her presidential project for 2017, Marine Le Pen however no longer proposed the restoration of the death penalty, preferring "real life".

Recent statements have, however, been confusing.

Mrs. Le Pen, last Thursday on France 2, estimated that via the RIC, "the question of the death penalty could go through a referendum, everything could go through a referendum except what goes against the Constitution".

The next day on BFMTV / RMC, the RN candidate corrected her remarks on a hypothetical referendum on the death penalty: "we can't, it's unconstitutional" and "I'm opposed to it".

© 2022 AFP