Marine Le Pen affirmed it during her campaign: if she is elected President of the Republic on the evening of Sunday April 24, she will introduce the RIC (for “citizen initiative referendum”) in her way of leading France. How could this work?
The RIC defended by the candidate of the National Rally will aim to be “an effective tool for circumventing lobbies and too powerful interests”. Clearly, it wishes to draw inspiration from the referendum of popular initiative (RIP), already provided for by the Constitution, but by modifying it on key elements.
Need only 500,000 supporting signers
When the RIP needs to be supported by a fifth of parliamentarians, i.e. 185 elected members out of the 577 deputies and 348 senators, plus a tenth of the electorate, i.e. more than 4.5 million people, Marine Le Pen wants to completely abolish the need to obtain the signatures of parliamentarians. Regarding voters, a level largely lowered to 500,000 people is advanced.
This would have the effect of making it easier to propose a law and make the exercise more “direct”, by dispensing with the opinion of parliamentarians. A change that would be part of the “referendum revolution” wanted by Marine Le Pen for the institutions, in order to give, according to her, more power to the French.
Introduce, amend or repeal a law
As a reminder, the method of the RIC must make it possible to trigger a referendum, in order to establish a new law, modify or repeal an already existing one. Moreover, in the case where it is a new text and it is validated by the vote of the French, only a new referendum can modify it. On the other hand, if it is rejected by the voters, it can no longer be proposed for fifteen years.
RN MEP Philippe Olivier clarified, however, that “subjects may be unconstitutional” and “things may not be desirable from a legal or even ethical point of view”. Themes such as the nuclear deterrent and “vital French interests” will thus be automatically excluded, he said.