Overview
- Former sports journalist Charles Biétry and MP Olivier Falorni delivered a letter to President Emmanuel Macron on November 4 requesting a nationwide vote if the bills remain stuck early next year.
- Their appeal seeks a referendum before summer 2026 on the two texts already approved in first reading: one on palliative care and another introducing assisted dying.
- Biétry, who has ALS, and Falorni argue that repeated delays are intolerable for terminal patients and describe the continuing blockage as indecent.
- The Senate declined to examine the measures this autumn and the collapse of François Bayrou’s government pushed back scrutiny, while Minister Laurent Panifous has signaled a nonbinding aim for a January Senate debate and a February return to the Assembly.
- Parliamentary sources say the right‑leaning Senate could revise the proposals, particularly the assisted‑dying measure, and the citizens’ collective ‘les 184’ has also endorsed a referendum as a fallback.