Does the unprecedented petition against the Duplumb law translate an appetite from the French to weigh more on political decisions? In ten days, more than 1.7 million people signed it to request the repeal of this law, which must notably reintroduce a pesticide in a derogatory manner.
558 Petitions are, at a time when we write this article, online on the dedicated site of the National Assembly, including ten linked to the Duplomb law. It is specified that, to be admissible, the text must be in French, include a sufficiently precise title and object. On the other hand, he cannot contain an appeal or provocation to hatred, violence, privacy …
After being recorded on the platform, the petition is allocated to one of the 8 permanent thematic commissions and then, on the proposal of a “rapporteur deputy”, it can be examined and debated in committee by the deputies. Its author, as well as the dedicated minister, can be heard. If the petition exceeds 500,000 signatures, it is debated in the hemicycle.
On the assembly site, online petitions cover a large field of subjects, from economics to social, including foreign affairs. The vast majority of them are limited to a few dozen signatures.
Political initiatives
Several petitions contain various and varied proposals on the theme of politics, such as the ban on deputies and senators to vote laws from 10 p.m. to 8 am, or the decrease in half of the number of parliamentarians, “for the purpose of reducing public spending”.
Another petition, signed by 800 people, demands the cap from the minimum wage of senators and deputies “during the budget deficit”. More radical, another proposal believes that it would be “beneficial for the country to do without government as we know it”. More than 60,000 people have signed another wishing the dismissal of Emmanuel Macron.
Petition No. 2731 is attacking the scourge of abstention: it aims to establish an obligation to vote in the major elections. All the citizens who fold there would then benefit from a tax reduction, after verifying the voting registers. On the other hand, those who sulk their duty would be provided a day of compulsory civic duties.
Economic and budgetary suggestions
The track of the abolition of two holidays (Easter Monday and May 8 are mentioned), proposed in mid-July by François Bayrou during the presentation of the major orientations of the 2026 budget and criticized by oppositions, does not seem to the taste of a number of citizens. “His proposition is in contradiction with the very spirit of secularism,” criticizes Didier Crouzilles, whose petition is opposed to more than 3,500 signatures.
Another author demands the establishment of public holidays for all major Muslim religious festivals, Jews, Buddhists and Hindu, practiced in France. Much more unusual, a last counter-proposition on this very thorny subject aims to “take up the Bastille, and thus regain a public holiday”.
Still on the economic component, other proposals aim, among other things, the withdrawal of a day of dividends to shareholders and a profit day to the owners of the CAC 40, the establishment of a national Bitcoins strategic reserve in France or the establishment of a lottery of employees, which would be one of them “one millionaire” each month.
Niche themes
Among this wide range of proposals, several societal subjects are mentioned: the restoration of the death penalty or military service, the legalization of cannabis and coffee shops, including the ban on smoking in external public spaces or the end of the hunting.
Other subjects approach much more specialized areas, such as the legal standardization of the word “pint” at 50 cl and “half-pint” at 25 cl, the sustainability of associative poker in France, the attachment of the American State of Louisiana to France or the end of the overflights of the Patrol of France, practice “of another time”.
