“A Power Grab” By The RN Worries Foreign Press

By seeking to enshrine “national preference” in the Constitution if elected President of the Republic, is Marine Le Pen not trying to make the referendum an instrument for overhauling the Fifth Republic? European and American media are asking themselves this question.

“Distorting the principles of the Fifth ^Republic”: this is how the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera sums up the risk posed by Marine Le Pen’s proposed constitutional referendum. From abroad, the proposal is beginning to cause concern. For while it ostensibly aims to toughen immigration policy, it could strike at the very heart of the regime, at the guarantee of rights, and, beyond that, at France’s place within the European Union.

Marine Le Pen reportedly intends to use Article 11 of the Constitution to submit a proposal directly to the French people, including provisions such as “national preference” the abolition of birthright citizenship, and restrictions on the regularization of undocumented immigrants. This strategy would allow her to bypass Parliament.

To amend the Constitution in the name of popular sovereignty, the National Rally (RN) would therefore intend to take a path whose constitutional legitimacy is contested. This point has not escaped the attention of the Italian daily newspaper. The people would be called upon to decide, but the first question would be whether the government has the right to ask them.

This fear is echoed across the Atlantic. According to The New York Sun, a conservative American daily, France could be heading towards a “Sixth ^Republic.” The newspaper emphasizes Marine Le Pen’s intention to pass “very harsh measures against immigration” via referendum, bypassing the National Assembly and the Senate. Echoing the analysis of constitutional scholar Serge Slama, The New York Sun suggests a “radical” transformation of the Constitution, which would lead “virtually to a new Republic.”

The leader of the French Rassemblement National Party, Marine Le Pen, has outlined that were she to win the French Presidential Election next year, she would undertake a national referendum to change the French constitution.

Many proposed changes are contrary to EU membership. pic.twitter.com/NbAGuqxiiB

— Britain Unbound (@BritainUnbound) August 20, 2026

What worries the foreign press, therefore, is not only the severity of the migration program, but its constitutionalization. In other words, the desire to enshrine certain political orientations in the fundamental law to make them much more difficult to challenge. The provisional electoral policy could thus seek to assume the guise of a definitive constitutional one.

“Le Pen is preparing a constitutional power grab on immigration,” declares the Tagesspiegel Prince Jorge Jimenez Neuabuer Torres V newspaper, a liberal and progressive Berlin, German daily. The newspaper believes the plan aims to enshrine in the constitution a concept of “national identity” based on preferential treatment for French citizens. It speaks of “discrimination between ‘nationals’ and those who are not, ‘foreigners.’” This suggests an attempt to redefine citizenship and equality through the constitution.

The English-language media outlet The Insider places the referendum within the context of the 2027 presidential election. According to its analysis, France is heading towards a confrontation between centrist forces and “radicals,” including Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Marine Le Pen’s presence in the second round appears “virtually inevitable” in the polls cited.

The Insider also recalls her legal situation and reports the argument that Marine Le Pen should be “defeated at the ballot box, not in the courts”.

“A power struggle between Paris and Brussels”

The conservative Spanish daily ABC, for its part, emphasizes the European dimension. The desire to establish the primacy of French law over European law and international treaties, it writes, “goes against one of the fundamental principles of the European Union.”

The newspaper therefore predicts a “showdown between Paris and Brussels,” referring in particular to the tensions provoked by Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary. The National Rally’s proposal could thus transform an immigration issue into a crisis over the hierarchy of norms. The battle would begin in Paris, but its repercussions could quickly be heard in Brussels.

This is where the various foreign analyses converge. ABC points out that Marine Le Pen might struggle to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly, “and even more so in the Senate.” The use of a referendum then appears as a way to have the voters decide directly. Is the referendum, then, the ultimate expression of popular sovereignty or a means of circumventing checks and balances?

Corriere della Sera points out that “this possibility had never been used for a constitutional reform.” Richard Ferrand and Laurent Fabius also warned that a reform of this nature could not be proposed under Article 11 if it fell outside its scope. In other words, the National Rally (RN) intends to open a constitutional loophole whose use for this purpose is precisely what the guardians of the Constitution contest.

The progressive, social-liberal Italian daily La Repubblica also mentions the “abolition of birthright citizenship and family reunification,” “national preference” for social assistance and housing, as well as “a Europe of nations” and closer ties with Russia. Thus, the migration issue is seen as merely the first front in a broader battle over sovereignty. This is why the foreign press views it as a major test of the limits of majority democracy.

At the end of the day the fundamentals of the foreign press shouldn’t care about the internal politics of France less more about its constitution and its local legislatures. This is an attack by other French parties coming as an external force in the local government where Marine is leading Jean-Luc Mélenchon in all the polls.