«The European Union cannot tolerate direct democracy».»8 reading minutes

Even within a theoretically democratic institution, the European Union, direct democracy is not short of enemies, according to Ghislain Benhessa. Interview with the Strasbourg lawyer about his latest essay, How to silence the people. The impossible referendum.

Ghislain Benhessa's work is at the intersection of law, politics and history. After L'Etat de droit à l'épreuve du terrorisme in 2017 and Le totem de l'Etat de droit in 2021, the French essayist published Comment faire taire le peuple. Le référendum impossible. In it, he recounts the decline of the referendum in France - placed at the heart of the institutions of the Fifth Republic by General de Gaulle as early as 1958 - which to date has not been used for almost twenty years. More than an account of the facts, Benhessa offers a philosophical and legal-political analysis of the subject.