Policy. “I didn’t understand”: Marc Ferracci questions Lecornu’s communication on the end-of-life law

MP Marc Ferracci, close to Emmanuel Macron, said on Sunday on Radio J that he did not “understand” that the Prime Minister announced his decision to refer the text creating a right to assisted dying to the Constitutional Council even before the final vote of the deputies. The bill was definitively adopted by Parliament on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, Sébastien Lecornu announced in a press release that he would contact the Sages. Giving food for thought to opponents of the text, who saw it as an “admission” of its “unbalanced” character.

“I did not understand this announcement from the Prime Minister (…) I did not understand that it came the day before (…) the vote (…) Before a vote, we do not, I think, question the debates that took place (…) And I am not the only one who did not understand that,” said MP Renaissance.

“To suggest that the text is deeply unbalanced, while the government took a position throughout the debates and was able to do so on the points that were raised, I find that this is not (…) a good approach,” he insisted, without calling into question the referral itself.

The President of the National Assembly shares this opinion

The Prime Minister filed his appeal on Friday, relating as promised to the reflection period given to patients to confirm or not their decision to request assistance in dying; on the supervision of the procedure for protected adults; and on the fact that the conscience clause is understood on an individual and not collective basis, not allowing private establishments to exclude the implementation of the new right within them. The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher also referred the matter to the Constitutional Council, as did the LR senators.

The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, also criticized the “timing” of Sébastien Lecornu’s announcement on Wednesday. “I found (…) that the press release which was published by Matignon could have waited until we had finished examining the text,” she told the press after the vote, which gave a fairly large majority to the supporters of the text.