In 1789, King Louis XVI of France ordered that the Third Estate, the commoners, be barred from entering the hall where the Estates General Assembly, convened by the monarch himself, was being held.
The conflict arose when the deputies of the Commoners demanded that voting be by individual rather than by class. The nobility and the clergy had a majority of votes and did not want to lose their privilege.
The commonwealth, excluded from the Assembly of the States General, decided to meet on a ball court or tennis court in Versailles, where they swore an oath not to separate until they had issued a constitution.
This act is considered the first decisive step in the overthrow of the monarchy and the beginning of the French Revolution.
Something very similar happened yesterday, October 28, 2025, in our country, when the majority of the deputies of the National Congress were denied access to the Congress building by a barrier set up by the national police.
The congressmen, who were attending a self-convened session because Congress had not met for more than two months, chose to move to Merced Park, where they took an oath not to separate and to defend the Constitution and the sovereign expression of the people, represented by the members of the National Congress.
The self-convened session resolved to extend the congressional session until January 20, 2026, and to prevent a tiny, arrogant minority from attempting to assume the powers of the plenary through a permanent commission on the eve of the general elections.
It should be remembered that, once the French Revolution began, Louis XVI lost his head for opposing the sovereign will of the people.
It is clear that the president of the Republic does not cease to be president simply because he is not in the government building, just as the members of the Supreme Court of Justice do not lose their status as judges because they act outside the building where they usually hold their sessions.
As the popular saying goes, “the suit does not make the monk, nor the stars the general.”
God save Honduras!
Carlos López Contreras
