PARIS • President Emmanuel Macron's promise to enshrine the fight against climate change in France's Constitution via a referendum was in doubt yesterday as senators appeared poised to torpedo the plan.
The initiative to state in the Constitution that France "guarantees environmental protection and biological diversity, and combats climate change" originated in a citizen's body set up by Mr Macron last year.
Seeking the upper hand in what could be a key issue in next year's elections, the French leader promised a referendum on the Bill if it gained approval in both houses of Parliament.
The National Assembly, where Mr Macron has a majority, overwhelmingly voted in favour of the revision in March.
But today, the Bill goes to the Senate, where the right-wing Republicans hold the majority.
They have already decided "to empty the Bill of its substance", Mr Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a National Assembly deputy for Mr Macron's La Republique en Marche party, said yesterday.
He warned in the Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) weekly that changes "will prevent the agreement", as under French law a referendum can go ahead only if it is approved in identical wording by both houses of Parliament.
Mr Macron's office responded by telling Agence France-Presse that the plan for the change in the Constitution was "in no way buried".
But a majority of senators take issue with the word "guarantee" in the Bill, which they say implies that environmental concerns would take priority over other constitutional principles.
JDD, meanwhile, in a separate article citing anonymous sources, claimed that Mr Macron had already given up on the referendum idea even before the Senate vote.
Condemnation by his political opponents was swift, with Green party boss Julien Bayou saying that Mr Macron "as usual made a promise he couldn't keep".
Centre-right senator Bruno Retailleau said Mr Macron was guilty of "hypocrisy", saying the President "accuses us of obstruction to justify the cancellation of a referendum that he never wanted".
The last referendum in France was in 2005, when voters were asked to back the creation of a European Constitution.
It was rejected in a humiliating defeat for then President Jacques Chirac.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
