03 July 2017•Update: 03 July 2017
By Hajer M'tiri
PARIS
President Emmanuel Macron used a rare address to a joint meeting of the French parliament on Monday to confirm the country would lift its state of emergency later this year.
France introduced a state of emergency in the aftermath of the November 2015 terrorist attacks across Paris which left over 100 people dead.
"I will restore the liberties of the French people by lifting the state of emergency in autumn. These freedoms are guarantees of a strong democracy,” Macron told the assembled lawmakers.
However, a new security law will accompany this waiver, the French president added.
Six weeks after his election as president, Macron chose the former royal palace of Versailles to lay out his vision for the next five years.
However, the country’s opposition described Monday’s address as one being delivered by a "new presidential monarch".
Wide-ranging reforms
Macron said he would implement institutional reforms of “efficiency, representativeness and responsibility".
"Let's end the legislative proliferation," he said, adding: “Too many laws kills the law and reduces its vigor.”
"For all these reasons I would like to see a comprehensive evaluation of all important texts, such as those on social dialogue or the fight against terrorism, which we have recently laid the groundwork for, within two years of their implementation," he said.
The centrist leader also said political mandates would no longer be for life and proposed cutting the French parliament by one third, arguing the change would have "positive effects on the general quality of parliamentary work".
France’s Senate has 348 members, while the lower house -- the National Assembly -- has 577 lawmakers.
Macron also said he wants to abolish of the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special French institution established in 1993 that hears cases against ministers accused of misconduct.
The president said French citizens could no longer tolerate “this exceptional justice”.
Macron also vowed to refer these reforms to a referendum if they were not voted upon by parliament within a year.
Rare address
Convening parliament is a procedure generally reserved for major constitutional revisions and presidential speeches during times of crisis.
Such a congress last met in November 2015 when former Socialist President Francois Hollande declared France was at war with terrorism after Daesh terrorists killed more than 100 people in the Paris region.
Former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy also addressed a joint congress in 2009 at the height of the worldwide financial crisis.
In June, Macron’s La Republique En Marche! (LREM) political movement and its centrist MoDem ally won an overwhelming majority of 350 seats in France’s National Assembly -- far more than the 289 needed for an absolute majority.
Several deputies and senators from opposition parties, such as Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left-wing La France insoumise (Unbowed France), and communists, boycotted Monday’s address, accusing the centrist president of behaving like a "republican monarch” and transforming the constitution into a "communications tool".
Macron was also mocked in the media, with left-wing newspaper Liberation running a caricature of the president as Jupiter descending from the clouds complete with toga and lightning bolts, under the headline: "Manupiter at Versailles."
In Monday’s speech, Macron said it was time to end the “ineffective Republic … the Republic of short breath”.
The newly elected French leader also vowed his mandate would be marked by “transparency”.
After his speech, Macron left the chamber to make room for a debate without a vote.
A major policy statement by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is expected on Tuesday.
