The member of the French parliament (Assemblée nationale) are ready for voting on Thursday on whether to enshrine environmental protection in the constitution, The Local France reported.
The 43-year-old French President has promised a referendum on making the fight against global warming a legal duty. Last year, Emmanuel Macron’s was urged for it by his Citizen’s Convention on Climate. On Thursday, the decision will seek the upper hand in what could be a key issue in next year’s elections.
The Convention was set up to respond to demands by ‘yellow vest’ anti-government protestors for greater direct democracy. To make the decision, the delegates came up with 149 proposals.
Prior to starting the vote at the Parliament, the Cabinet has suggested adding a clause stating that France “guarantees environmental protection and biological diversity, and combats climate change.”
So far, centrist Macron has a majority in Parliament, where there is a tougher fight in the upper house Senate, where the rightwing Republicans hold the majority.
The last referendum in France was in 2005 when voters were asked to back the creation of a European Constitution, which was rejected in a humiliating defeat for then-president Jacques Chirac.
