Dissolution, a trap for Macron?

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A year after the legislative elections, the President of the Republic has regained the right to call new elections. While he claims not to exercise this right, aware that his side would likely not emerge victorious, he has not ruled anything out.

Paris, June 9, 2024. Reconquest! party headquarters during the European election results evening. PICTURED: President Emmanuel Macron announces the dissolution of the National Assembly. (Stéphane Lagoutte/Myop for Libération)

by Jean-Baptiste Daoulas and Charlotte Belaïch

An anniversary? What anniversary? The return of Emmanuel Macron's dissolution power, one year after the second round of the legislative elections on July 7, 2024, has been reduced to a non-event at the Élysée Palace. "There are constitutional experts who believe it's already been rearmed !" observes those close to him, referring to the debates agitating legal experts over the exact date when Article 12 of the Constitution once again allows the Head of State to strike down the Assembly. The real question, legal quibbles aside, is whether he intends to resort to it again before 2027. As with nuclear deterrence, the President of the Republic strives to maintain a form of strategic ambiguity. Every time the question is asked, he swears that

Emmanuel Macron National Assembly