Not even Marine Le Pen flirts today with the idea of leaving the European Union and returning to the franc as currency. Frexit (the French version of Brexit) is the work of a very marginal ultra-nationalist minority. But the Republicans (LR), the traditional right, the party inheritor of Gaullistism, has proposed to modify the Constitution to establish national pre-eminence before European laws and treaties, and thus drastically curb immigration. If it were to be put into practice, it would mean a partial Frexit – or an opt-out, according to community jargon – with serious repercussions, which would question the very philosophy of the European project.
The growing porosity between the extreme right and the right is a phenomenon that has been observed for years in France and other countries. It is a strategy that does not always bring benefits. The Republicans have lost a good part of their electoral base, especially in the national elections. Its last candidate in the Elysee, Valérie Pécresse, president of the Paris region, obtained a disappointing 4.78% of votes in the first round of last year's elections.
LR continues to have, however, important sources of power. Its 64 deputies in the National Assembly are a group much celebrated by Macron's supporters, who lost their majority. In the Senate, chamber of territorial representation and indirect election, LR controls 145 seats, the largest minority.
A few days ago, LR presented to both chambers a constitutional law proposal "relating to the sovereignty of France, nationality, immigration and asylum". This initiative was countered by the Government, which had just postponed its own immigration reform. After the ordeal experienced with the pension reform, Macron chose to lower the revolutions and not subject the country to a phase of maximum political tension again. It was clear that the Executive's plan would end in failure, since there is no majority in Parliament for a reform that included a regularization of foreigners in an irregular situation to cover vacant jobs in sectors such as construction, gastronomy, transport or agriculture.
L R's objective is to "restore our sovereignty in matters of migration" and to press the brakes hard to drastically reduce arrivals, facilitate expulsions and restrict access to French nationality. They plan to amend the Constitution to introduce the possibility of a popular referendum on migration policy. The result should be that French laws, approved by their Parliament and ratified by the people, would take precedence over European laws and treaties, including the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.
The leaders of LR insist that they do not aspire to Frexit. His model is rather Denmark, a country that even with a social democratic government applies an extremely restrictive immigration policy thanks to the opt-outs (exceptions) that it negotiated at the time and which include the single currency (Copenhagen is not in the euro zone) and justice. It is obvious that France, due to its weight and geographical centrality in the EU, has nothing to do with Denmark. Giving it exceptional treatment would generate an earthquake that would paralyze European construction.
The Republicans are not only very tough on the immigration issue. A political conception is gaining ground in the party which, according to some analysts, brings them closer to the postulates of the so-called illiberal democracy, of the erosion of the rule of law, which prevail in Hungary and Poland. LR denounces a "silent legal revolution". He considers that the hands of the French Parliament and popular sovereignty are tied by Brussels and also by courts and control bodies, such as the Council of State, the Constitutional Council or supposedly independent administrative authorities that, without being elected at the polls, assume excessive political influence, and in many cases conditioning.
One of those who best embodies this illiberal drift is Laurent Wauquiez, former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of L R and current president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alps region. Wauquiez, one of the potential candidates for the Elysée in 2027, talks about eliminating the prerogatives of the "Deep State" - a concept that Donald Trump likes - and giving more voice and decision to popular sovereignty and its representatives. "By virtue of having put in counter-powers, there is no more power", affirms Wauquiez.
The extreme right is rubbing its hands because it sees that some of its old ideas are no longer taboo, they are gaining adherents and, therefore, the broad national-conservative convergence may be closer than ever.
