13.11.2016 Author: Jean Perier

Monsieur Malbrough est Mort

Column: Politics

Region: Europe

A recently published article titled with the words of a popular French song “Marlbrough s’en va-t-en Guerre” has attracted much attention around the background of Francois Hollande’s “achievements”.

Now that Donald Trump has been elected as the next President of the United States, a string of European politicians have started voicing their discontent, including the current French President. He has failed to hide such discontent with the decision Americans have made. However, he described Trump’s victory as a “lesson learnt,” the importance of which “goes far beyond the borders of the United States.” Little did he know, French politicians have interpreted this passage in their own reserved way.

On November 10, the lower house of the Assemblée nationale has passed the vote to impeach Hollande, passing the bill with 152 votes out of the total of 199, resulting in the president of the Assemblée Nationale, Claude Bartolone, officially submitting a draft resolution for Hollande’s impeachment.

The impeachment procedure has only been introduced in 2014 in accordance with Article 68 of the French Constitution. According to the laws of the Fifth Republic, a president can only be impeached if he blatantly ignored his duties.

To start this procedure, one would have to obtain 58 votes in the Assemblée Nationale, where the Republicans are now holding a total of 193 seats. The demand for Hollande to leave was signed by a total 152 deputies, including the Republican Spokesperson in the Assembly, Christian Jacob and the former Prime-Minister François Fillon.

The Right are convinced that Hollande should be held liable for disclosing state secrets in his book with the telling title “A President Shouldn’t Say This“ (Un président ne devrait pas dire ça…). They are convinced that a president should know better than putting down all the details of French secret service operations aimed at assassinating terrorist leaders abroad.

If the draft is to be found valid, it will be handed over to a special judicial committee of the the lower house of the the Assemblée Nationale. Finally, when everything is said and done, the two houses will form the Republican High Court that will decide the fate of the sitting president. But regardless of how the impeachment procedure turns out in the end, this whole affairs has literally ended Hollande’s political career, since he has no chance to get reelected. Therefore, one could use the words of the above mentioned song: «Monsieur Malbrough est mort» (Malbrough is now dead).

However, this wasn’t much of a surprise for anyone who has been following French politics, since, according to Le Figaro, Hollande’s approval rating has hit an all time low of 11%. No President in French history enjoyed less support from the population, with even the Socialist party reluctant to back up Hollande’s policies, with only 34% supporting him.

However, it seems unlikely that Hollande will be the only European leader that will have to face the consequences of his mindless support of US President Obama’s warmongering policies that have, at the end of the day, inflicted serious damage to EU interests.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”   
http://journal-neo.org/2016/11/13/monsieur-malbrough-est-mort/