The French head of state visited the headquarters of the Grand Orient of France (GOF) on November 8, 2023.
It is an unprecedented visit for the President of the Republic, which was decided last summer on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the oldest lodge in France.
Some see it as way of giving reassurances to Freemasonry, which is worried about the vagueness surrounding the next bill on euthanasia.
A few months after having received the representatives of the main religious groups in France, the tenant of the Elysée Palace wanted to take the pulse of the Masons concerning the thorny question of euthanasia, renamed “end of life” so as not to frighten public opinion.
Certain signals from the executive have made the skin of the Masons bristle.
Their so-called humanism is elevated to the point of fully supporting the future bill allowing persons to be legally put to death when their state of health has been deemed incompatible with public finances.
Officially, this will involve offering “the opportunity to die with dignity” to those who wish it.
In a letter sent on November 5, 2023 to political forces, revealed by Le Figaro, Emmanuel Macron evokes the broadening of the scope of the referendum to “so-called societal questions” such as “the end of life.”
On this subject, a bill is scheduled to be presented in December to the Council of Ministers, before being discussed first in the National Assembly, then in the Senate at the beginning of 2024.
The question that haunts the Masonic lodges is the following: Could the prospect of a referendum undermine the parliamentary process, or even call into question the legalization of euthanasia?
To put an end to the ambiguity, Guillaume Trichard, the grand master of the GOF, invited the President of the Republic to “seize the national representation” in order to “change our legislation on the end of life.”
Mr. Macron then affirmed that the “right to die with dignity” will be the subject of a “law on freedom and respect.”
However, in politics, promises only bind those who believe them.
For good measure, the Head of State also mentioned before the Masons “the fight for the cause of women” and, in this regard, “the obscurantism, which has not disappeared,” and which, according to him, “comes back” and “is reborn.”
This is why he wanted “the inclusion in our Constitution of the freedom for women to resort to abortion.”
Finally, carried by the forced lyricism of which he is customary, the tenant of the Elysée Palace compared Masonic work to “a word of reason, bringing progress in an era prey to unreason,” while praising the “slow and patient work of thinking, listening, and sharing” carried out within the lodges, far from the “false black legend” of Freemasonry, because “there is no plot or secret design here.”