A tortuous road. If the National Assembly voted on the first reading this Tuesday, May 27, the bill creates a right to die, its final adoption is still far. Due to the parliamentary shuttle, potentially covered with difficulties due to differences, social reform cannot see the light of the day before 2027. In addition, it can be strongly remodeling.
“As we know, it is a long trip that remains to be carried out,” said the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, after the vote of the deputies on Tuesday.
A Senate, mainly opposite
After the Bourbon Palace, go to the Senate. The upper room should not be able to examine the text until next fall due to a very busy senatorial work program, advances to the ministry responsible for relations with Parliament in Franceinfo.
It will be the senators of the Social Affairs Committee who will begin by holding the issue before a debate and then a vote occurs, probably by the end of the year.
And in the Senate, the obstacle will be the size. The Luxembourg Palace is dominated by law and the center and, therefore, this reform is acquired less, established in 2022 by the President of the Republic. Senators will surely try to impose new frames.
The proposal of the deputy modem Olivier Falorni, committed for decades for this cause, will return to the National Assembly “in early 2026”, predicted Minister Catherine Vautrin. The deputies will have to do it quickly because, as the parliamentary tradition wishes, the work in the hemicycle must be suspended between March and April due to the municipal elections.
The parliamentary shuttle provides a second visit to the Senate. In case of disagreement between the two chambers, the Ministry responsible for relations with Parliament will convene a joint committee composed of deputies and senators. They will have to agree on a text, which is probably approved by both the National Assembly and the Senate.
If this is not the case, the Bourbon Palace will have the last word. Keep in mind that the Joint Committee can be convened directly after the transition from the text in the first reading to the Senate, which generates a third reading in the National Assembly.
Emmanuel Macron had opened the door on May 13 in TF1 to the organization of a referendum on the subject, in case of a “stuttering” in Parliament. That “perhaps a path to unlock” the question and “allow the French and the French to express themselves,” said the head of state.
“I want the text to be voted for 2027”
Therefore, the calendar of a final adoption of the law that creates a “right to help die” is uncertain. The president of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said with the hope of this Wednesday in France 2 a final adoption “in the summer of 2026”. When the general rapporteur of the bill, Olivier Falorni, a table with Franceinfo for “the end of 2026”.
In more general terms, elected officials favorable to text expect adoption and entry “before the end of the term of five years.” “Not achieving a final adoption before the end of the term of five years would be the most terrible expression of the impotence of our institutions,” said Deputy Olivier Falorni. An agenda that has some doubts.
Especially because once the text voted in Parliament, the course is not over. The President of the Republic has a fortnight to promulgate the text. Two weeks during which the Constitutional Council can be seized by opposite parliamentarians. The wise are one month to issue their decision. If it is negative, new adjustments must be made.
The law cannot also enter into force before implementing the decrees, which specify the application methods, are published. A 2022 circular dating provides a period of six months. “I hope the text is voted for 2027, it is still possible,” said Minister of Health Catherine Vautrin.
Source: BFM TV
