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Institutions, David Lisnard

Citizens' initiative referendum (RIC): Article 11 with no subject limits; workable popular initiative, guaranteed vote

Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.

The lever. Whether citizens can trigger a referendum themselves, and on which subjects. Direction rule: ↑ broader citizens' initiative.

« L’article 11 sera libéré de ses limites thématiques : tout sujet pourra être soumis au pays - l’immigration, l’école, la justice, la dépense publique. […] Le référendum d’initiative populaire sera vraiment institué et rendu praticable, avec un seuil de signatures atteignable et, au terme du délai, un vote garanti. »1

Translation by the editorsArticle 11 will be freed from its subject limits: any subject may be put to the country - immigration, schools, justice, public spending. […] The popular initiative referendum will be truly established and made workable, with an attainable signature threshold and, at the end of the period, a guaranteed vote.

Words of David Lisnard, Discours de Bayeux (PDF publié par Nouvelle Énergie), 17 June 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme.

Encoding

No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.

Costing

Announced by the candidate

not announced

The cited source does not cost this measure.

Published costings

none

No external costing of this position recorded to date.

Our calculation

not costed

Institutional reform, outside the budget: the number of votes is not set and their cost remains negligible on the scale of the public accounts (a national referendum costs €100m to €200m, Ministry of the Interior, 2025). Rule common to all candidates (decision of 18 October 2026).

Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule

Current law. No RIC (citizens' initiative referendum). There is only the shared-initiative referendum (Constitution, art. 11 para. 3, 2008 revision): it requires the initiative of one fifth of parliamentarians, supported by one tenth of registered voters. A national referendum is held on the initiative of the President (art. 11) or as part of a revision (art. 89).

Horizon. Cost per vote, in current €bn. The annual cost in 2032 depends on the number of referendums, which the programme must specify.

Limits. Minimal budgetary effect compared with the democratic stakes. Bottom of the range: an electronic vote, according to the minister. Top: a paper vote. The effects of decisions taken by RIC (abolition of taxes, etc.) are costed in the relevant levers, not here. The cost of the 2005 referendum (€130.6m in 2005 euros, borne by the Ministry of the Interior alone) comes from the ministerial reply; it is within the €100m to €200m range given by the minister in 2025. Nearly half (€58.8m) is the sending of documents to voters.

How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.

This lever in the method · Costing for David Lisnard

  1. Discours de Bayeux (PDF publié par Nouvelle Énergie), 17 June 2026, p. 9. Words of David Lisnard. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (Discours de Bayeux (PDF publié par Nouvelle Énergie)).

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