Pension reform: “The Constitutional Council has an opportunity to offer a solution to the political crisis”

dOr for a few weeks, we were introduced to the school of the Constitution, which, of course, every citizen of France should know. We have discovered, studied, reviewed the happiness of verses 49.3, 47.1, 44.2, 44.3. And for those who had the courage to follow the parliamentary debates, the amalgamation of the rules of the National Assembly. You are now about to discover and fall in love with Title VII of our Basic Law, so Articles 56 through 63, and more specifically Articles 56 and 61.

The Constitutional Council is an assembly of wise men, or rather an assembly of elders, as we say in Switzerland. The oldest (Alain Juppe) is 77 years old, and the youngest (Véronique Malbec) is 64 years old. They are appointed for the most part in 2019-2022. Five of them are politicians: Laurent Fabius and Alain Juppe had very famous careers during the V period.^e In the Republic, Jacques Mézard and Jacqueline Gauraud were Macronist ministers, François Pillet was senator and mayor. The other four have profiles of senior civil servants.

Among the nine members, with the exception of Jacqueline Goreau, all have a higher or general legal education (there are four énarques). Should we approach their likely political leanings based on their trajectories and their appointments? These can range from the transitional left (Laurent Fabius) to various shades of centrism (three of these members were appointed by Gérard Larchet).

We know that the Constitutional Council has always questioned its composition (apart from age and social and professional trajectories), but above all on the political side: the Supreme Magistrate, who is responsible for declaring the law, even though its members declare their political appointment. the government. Of course, the appointing authority cannot appoint without control, but only a vote of three-fifths of the constitutional law committees of each assembly prevents the appointment of the candidate referred to by the appointing authority (namely, the President of the Republic, the President of Georgia, the Senate, the President of the Assembly).

Many solutions

What can we expect from the Constitutional Council in the current political situation? In principle, and this is constantly repeated to confirm the legitimacy of the institution and remove any doubt of political bias, the Constitutional Council guarantees the rule of law and legal judges are all that. Today, perhaps more than at any time in the past, the Constitutional Council will have to deal with an explosive political charge. One wonders what has happened in recent weeks and what is happening now in the Parisian corridors of the Montpensier wing of the Palais-Royal where it sits.