Can the new Assembly adopt the next law?

The law on end of life is not buried. The dissolution has only pushed back the deadline. On July 19, two days after the opening of the 17th legislature, Les Démocrates MP Olivier Falorni announced that he had filed a new bill on “support for the sick and the end of life”.

The new text, whose constitutional conformity still needs to be verified, will be validated by the office of the National Assembly “at the end of August○”, Olivier Falorni confided to the Pilgrim.

The text will not be the government’s priority in this turbulent period, admits the MP, who is very committed to the issue of end of life. “But we were in the middle of voting during the previous legislature, so it is important to resume the debates quickly. In order not to reduce our efforts to nothing, I proposed a text that includes all the amendments voted on last June.” At the time of being abandoned, the bill reserved assisted suicide for people over 18 years old residing in France and suffering from a “serious and incurable condition that is life-threatening, in an advanced or terminal phase”. The bill will have to wait at least until the end of the summer. At that date, the bureau of the National Assembly will officially have the power to validate the submission of the texts. “But this is a premature initiative at a time when the different political groups have not consulted on the issue”, complains Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, former chair of the end of life commission.

The Horizons MP, a member of the presidential camp, hopes to regain control of this text that was beginning to slip away from her control last June. The MPs had just voted on Article 6, which broadened access to assisted dying. While the government wanted to limit the lethal act to patients with a “prognosis of life in the short or medium term”, access was opened to all patients “in an advanced or terminal phase”. The MPs also had an amendment adopted for an “enforceable right” to benefit from palliative care, against the advice of the presidential camp. And the text could go further in an Assembly where the left, mostly in favour of a law on the end of life, now represents the leading parliamentary force. To prevent this new balance of power, the presidential coalition is recounting its cards. “We must consider this law within the framework of a legislative pact,” maintains Agnès Firmin Le Bodo. “On such a social issue, I do not wish to vote for this law with La France Insoumise. I want to build a majority of votes with the parties of the republican arc, namely the center, the Socialist Party and the Republicans.”

Deprived of an absolute majority, the presidential camp hopes to form an alliance with the Les Républicains group to vote on its texts. But can it really count on the votes of the right to pass the law on the end of life, according to its conditions? “The Republicans are mostly against the bill and it is not serious to consider an alliance on such a subject”, dismisses Olivier Falorni. On the contrary, the defenders of the law on the end of life believe that the debates will turn in their favor. “We have already deliberated on part of the text and it seems normal to me not to go back on it, considers Hadrien Clouet, deputy of La France insoumise. Now, the New Popular Front is the leading force in the Assembly and we will collectively take back control of the examination of the text. The vote of the French must be respected.” On the other side of the hemicycle, the deputies of the National Rally (RN) will not receive any voting instructions, officially. In fact, a majority supports Marine Le Pen’s position, that is, opposition to euthanasia or assisted suicide. “We were horrified by the content of the debates,” complains Julien Odoul, spokesperson for the RN. “While the priority should be the issue of palliative care, all the red lines have been crossed.” Conversely, for Olivier Falorni, the law on the end of life represents an opportunity to restore political dialogue. “It is a transpartisan debate,” believes the MP. “The government, whoever it is, will have difficulty getting texts adopted in the coming year. It will therefore be able to count this reform in its record.” At the cost of what concessions for the presidential camp?