France's far-right lawmakers on Friday urged the constitutional court to remove its president in a showdown over presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's referendum plans, as she escalates attacks on opponents ahead of an election next year.
Opinion polls place Le Pen, 58, as the frontrunner in the first round of the presidential election due in April, despite an appeals court upholding a graft conviction against her.
In recent days, the far-right leader and senior officials from her National Rally (RN) party have intensified criticism of figures they view as obstacles to their agenda, including Constitutional Council head Richard Ferrand and Bank of France governor Emmanuel Moulin. Both are the heads of independent bodies but both were nominated by President Emmanuel Macron.
According to the far-right party, if elected president, Le Pen would seek to revise the constitution through a referendum to implement her "national priority" policies, scrap birthright citizenship and tighten asylum rules, among other measures.
Critics have described her "national priority" plan as discriminatory and xenophobic.
In a letter sent to the Constitutional Council, lawmakers from the RN and an allied party, the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), said that Ferrand should step down after he dismissed Le Pen's proposal to bypass parliament and amend the constitution through a referendum.
'No debate'
"It doesn't exist," Ferrand said in a recent podcast, referring to the idea of reforming the constitution by referendum. "There is no debate."
Le Pen's lieutenant, Jordan Bardella, said that Ferrand "has trampled on the rule of law through his recent statements, and that through his behaviour, his remarks and his attitude, he is discrediting the institution he is supposed to represent."
Far-right lawmakers called on the "senior member of the Constitutional Council", former prime minister Alain Juppe, to initiate proceedings for Ferrand's "automatic removal" from office, arguing that he had "publicly prejudged a legal question not yet decided by the Constitutional Council."
They said that Ferrand "spoke in place of the Constitutional Council on a matter that the institution may be called upon to examine in the future, disregarding both its jurisdiction and its collegial nature."
'Flying elephants'
Jean-Philippe Derosier, a professor of public law at the University of Lille, dismissed the far-right initiative. "This type of legal remedy no more exists than unicorns and flying elephants do," he told AFP.
"What looks like a legal challenge is in reality just a simple letter," he added, arguing that the Constitutional Council was under no obligation to respond.
On Thursday, the far right turned its attention to Moulin, the central bank governor and Macron's former chief of staff.
Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a prominent RN lawmaker, said Moulin "still behaves like a Macron supporter" and "has to go".
He also claimed that Amelie de Montchalin, the country's top auditor, was "far too political."
The RN has warned that officials who are not ready to implement its agenda, should it come to power, could lose their jobs. "If we win, there will be plenty of posts to fill," a member of Le Pen's team said on condition of anonymity.