Ugo Pascolo 09:45, March 24, 2023

While the country is plunged into a political crisis following the use of 49.3 to adopt the unpopular pension reform, the question of the extent of the powers of the President of the Republic resurfaces. But for constitutionalist Anne-Charlène Bezzina, the problem lies more in the use of the Constitution than in the powers it confers.

DECRYPTION

Emmanuel Macron, president or republican monarch? The political crisis triggered by the forceps adoption of the pension reform, led by the highly contested article 49.3 of the Constitution, puts forward the powers of the President of the Republic. A criticism that is far from new, since "since the first days of 1958 [the establishment of the Fifth Republic, editor's note], [...] we are talking about a presidential monarchy," Anne-Charlène Bezzina, a political scientist and constitutionalist, told Europe 1.

>> READ ALSO - Pensions: for Alain Bauer, "it's the same crisis as the yellow vests, it continues"

"The Constitution is a tool"

However, "in the crisis we are experiencing, none of the president's own powers that are enshrined in the text of the Constitution and that have made the monarchy cry so much have been used." According to the specialist, "the problem is not so much with what the text grants as power to the President of the Republic as in the way of using them. Let us never forget that the Constitution is a tool and it is the political power that will activate it."

"Article 16 of the Constitution, for example, is a veritable presidential dictatorship for the most exceptional cases. Again, if it is misused, it can cause problems. I fundamentally don't believe that the list of powers distributed by the Constitution is problematic."

Ultimately, according to Anne-Charlène Bezzina, the source of the political crisis would therefore come from the use of powers which tends to "the gradual installation of a regime in which the president is the source of all decisions".