This Sunday, March 24, the president of MoDem, François Bayrou, once again called for consideration of the question of proportional representation in legislative elections. A measure which should ensure better representation in the Assembly. Often debated, it has never been applied.
Often discussed, but never implemented. The measure consisting of introducing a dose of proportionality during the legislative elections was once again defended, Sunday March 24, by François Bayrou. The president of MoDem has made it the fight of his life. “I am convinced that we will get there. That after so many years of fighting […] we will be able to find a solution to this question which is vital for the future of French democracy,” declared François Bayrou during his concluding speech at the centrist party congress in Blois, reports franceinfo. In February, the president of MoDem in the Assembly, Patrick Mignola, tabled two bills with a view to the next legislative elections.
The measure, which also appeared in Emmanuel Macron’s program in 2017, would, according to its defenders, lead to a more representative National Assembly. Although it disappeared from the President’s program during his re-election in 2022, in an interview with Le Figaro, Yaël Braun-Pivet also took up this issue, launching a “call to reconnect with [the] original democratic promise , that supported by [his party]”. The President (Renaissance) of the National Assembly had pleaded for the establishment of a “strong dose of proportionalism, of the order of 25 to 30%”.
If proportional representation had existed during the 2017 legislative elections, the parties which did not present candidates in several constituencies could have, at the level of a department, obtained more votes, analyzes Le Monde during a simulation. However, the representation of the parties in the National Assembly would probably have been the same as that obtained with a majority vote, indicates the daily.
“The majority voting method ensures consistency between the parliamentary and presidential majority. […] Its detractors will see this as an additional argument,” explains Jean-Pierre Camby, associate professor of constitutional law at the University of Versailles-Saint- Quentin-en-Yvelines, adding that “generally speaking, it is rather the opposition which is in favor of proportional representation. When we gain power, we often forget this reform, which is an additional problem, because we takes the risk of a crumbling of the majority during the next election.
