French Constitution

Introduction
• France is known as ‘Laboratory of Political experiment’.
• It has a unitary form of government and nature of the government
is called as semi- Presidential type
• It has some features of Parliamentary system and others of
Presidential system
• The French Parliament does not have supremacy even in law
making. There is a list for which the legislature can make laws,
whereas rest of the matters are taken care of by the President (i.e. he
makes the laws).
• This is perhaps the only Democratic Constitution based on the
Principle of Supremacy of Executive.
• France suffered from political instability. Hence, the Constitution of
the 5th Republic provides a strong President, with a fixed term
of 5 years, and he enjoys a lot of powers.
• Since the passing of the 2008 Constitutional reform, the maximum
number of terms a president can serve has been limited to two.

France profile
Revolution and empire
 1789 - French Revolution ends rule of monarchy going back to 9th
Century; followed by establishment of the First Republic.
 1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads coup to overthrow government;
consolidates position with new constitution.
 1804-1814 - Napoleon crowns himself emperor of First French
Empire. A series of military successes brings most of continental
Europe under his control.
 1815 - Napoleon defeated in Battle of Waterloo, the Bourbon
monarchy is re-established.
 1848 - Amid revolutions across Europe, Louis Phillippe is
overthrown and a Second Republic is established.
 1852 - The president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew, is proclaimed Napoleon III,
emperor of the Second Empire.
 1870-71 - Franco-Prussian War. Prussian and German forces
defeat French army, invade France and besiege Paris. Napoleon III
overthrown. France loses Alsace-Lorraine to the newly unified
Germany.

Third Republic
 1870 September - Third Republic proclaimed - it lasts until 1940.
 1939-45 - World War Two. Germany occupies much of France. Vichy
regime in unoccupied south collaborates with Nazis. In 1942
Germany occupies southern France as well.
Fourth Republic
 1946-58 - Fourth Republic is marked by economic reconstruction
and the start of the process of independence for many of France's
colonies.
 1946-54 - Bitter war in French Indochina - Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia - for independence between the Communist Viet Minh and
French forces. France leaves after its army suffers major defeat at
battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
 1951 - France joins West Germany and other European nations in the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
 1954-62 - France faces another bitter anti-colonialist conflict in
Algeria, which it treats as an integral part of France and is home to
over one million European settlers. The conflict nearly leads to a
coup and civil war in France itself.
 1956 - Colonial rule ends in Morocco and Tunisia.
 1957 - France joins West Germany as one of six European nations in
the forming of the European Economic Community (EEC), now
known as the European Union.
Fifth Republic
 1958 May - De Gaulle returns to power on back of the crisis and
founds the Fifth Republic, with a stronger presidency.

President
• The French President is the most powerful within the French system
as well as amongst all other executive across world democracies
• Privileges of the Office of the President of US, i.e. security of tenure
and being the head of the Government as well as head of the
 State is combined with the privileges of the Office of the British
P.M. i.e. power to dissolve the Assembly (which the American
President doesn’t enjoy)
• France has PM as well as President
 French PM, unlike that in India and Britain, is assistant to the
President
 There is a division of functions, rather than division of
power between the two positions
 The French President deals with foreign policy and
national concerns
 The PM, on the other hand, deals with day to day routine
functions of the Government and local domestic issues
• PM is appointed by the President
 The President doesn’t have a completely free-hand in PM’s
election
 Unlike the practice prevailing in other countries, it is not
obligatory for the President to appoint leader of the majority
party as the Prime Minister
 The person appointed as PM must enjoy the confidence of the
House
• Concept of ‘Cohabitation’
 A situation where the President and the PM belong to different
political parties
• PM may choose his cabinet colleagues
• Cabinet is presided over by the President
• He is also the supreme commander of the armed: forces His power to
preside over the meetings of the Council of Ministers provides him
 the direct opportunity to influence, guide, direct and control of
the policies of the government.
• He has the power to grant pardon, reprieve and amnesty to
offenders.
• He nominates members to the Higher Council of Judiciary but he
exercises these powers in consultation with the Prime Minister
because the constitution requires that these acts of the President
should be countersigned by the Prime Minister.
• The Lower House can pass the ‘Censure Motion’ against the PM and
his CoM, which would imply that they must resign
• The President is elected for a fixed term. Initially the term was 9
years, reduced to 7 years and at present is 5 years.
• They follow Second Ballot system (i.e. absolute majority of the total
votes polled is needed)
 The President of the Republic shall be elected by an absolute
majority of votes polled: if in the first round of elections, no
person gets absolute majority only the top two candidates
remain and the rest are eliminated.
 Second round of election takes place, in which one person is
able to get the absolute majority.

Removal of the President

The President can be impeached on the same ground as the US President.
However, the process is ambiguous.
• Article 67 of the Constitution suggests that both the Houses should
pass identical motion.
• After this, the President’s case will be dealt with by a special body
called the High Court of Justice.
 • This body also trails cases of corruption and conspiracies against the
state by government ministries.

Emergency Powers of the President

Article 16 of the Constitution gives the real emergency powers to the
President. In this situation he assumes unlimited powers and it is like
democratic dictatorship or democratic coup-detat.

Comparative Analysis of the US and French Presidents

• The US President cannot dissolve the Assembly, whereas the
French President can do so. The only limitation is that he can’t do so
more than twice a year.
• Unlike the US President, the French President can assume dictatorial
powers under Article 16.

Comparative Analysis of the French President and British P.M.

• The British P.M. can remain in office only as long as he enjoys
majority in the lower house.
• The President of France, on the other hand, is elected for a fixed
term.

The Legislature
• The Legislature is clearly subordinate to the Executive in the French
system.
• Article 37 of the Constitution puts clear limitation on the legislative
power of the French Parliament.
• It mentions that the Parliament can make laws only on the matters
enumerated in the Constitution.
 • On all other matters, the government can make laws by simple order
or decree.
• The President can directly influence the legislative functions of the
assembly through the P.M. If the assembly doesn’t agree to a
particular bill, it can be given for referendum by the President.
• Article 49.3 of the French constitution, a government can override
parliamentary opposition and pass a law without a parliamentary
vote.
• The French Parliament is bicameral, consisting of two houses:
National Assembly and the Senate

National Assembly
• As is the case with other bicameral Parliaments, the French
bicameralism is an unequal system since the National Assembly
has much broader powers than those of the Senate:
• It alone can hold the Government accountable by refusing to grant
it ‘confidence’ or by passing a censure motion (following the same
idea, only the National Assembly can be dissolved by the President of
the Republic).
• In the case of disagreement with the Senate, the Government can
decide to grant the National Assembly “the final say” in the
legislative procedure (except for constitutional acts and
institutional acts concerning the Senate);
• The Constitution provides the National Assembly with a more
important role in the examination of the finance bill and the
social security financing bill.
 • Thus, the tabling for a first reading of such bills must be before the
National Assembly and the time limits granted for their
examination are much longer for the National Assembly.

La République En Marche!

 Meaning “Republic On The Move” in English, this party (often

abbreviated to En Marche!) went from foundation to the most
successful party in French elections in less than two years.

 The current French President Emmanuel Macron founded it in

2016 as a centrist liberal party. Similar to the Liberal Democrats
in the UK

 The second biggest political force is the NUPES, the left-wing alliance
gathered around Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise.

 The latter dominates the NUPES with 72 seats followed by the

socialist party (24 seats), the greens (23 seats) and the communist
party (12 seats).

 As opposed to Ensemble, the NUPES is not a legislative coalition, but a

tactical alliance formed only for the legislative elections
National Rally (Rassemblement national)

 The National Rally was founded as the National Front (Front

National) in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen. It is now led by his daughter
Marine, who rebranded the party in 2018.

 The party is the most prominent far-right party in France and one
of the most well-known and long-standing in Europe.

 French nationalism is the platform for the party which campaigns

on anti-immigration (particularly from Islamic countries) and
a zero-tolerance approach to law and order.

 The National Rally is also a Eurosceptic party, although it has

moderated its stance.

 It now calls for EU reform rather than withdrawal as well as keeping

the Euro and staying in the Schengen Area.

 Although Marine Le Pen was runner-up in the 2022 presidential

election, the party has been less successful in parliamentary
elections.

Union of Democrats and Independents (Union des démocrates et

indépendants – UDI)

 Formed in 2012, the UDI is a liberal party. However, it is

more classically liberal than En Marche! or MoDem.

 This places it more on the right-wing of the political spectrum and

closer to conservative French parties.
  The party supported the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in
the 2017 and 2022 elections and allied itself with right-wing parties
in parliamentary elections.

Left Party (Parti de Gauche)

• Formed in 2009 as a split from the Socialist Party, the Left

Party is another relatively new left-wing party; although quite
old by French political party standards! It sits between the
socialists and communists as a Eurosceptic democratic
socialist party

The Senate
• In contrast to the National Assembly, the Senate cannot be
dissolved.
• The fact that Senate is a permanent body plays an important
role in accounting for the stability of the Government when the
post of the French Republic’s President falls vacant.
• Owing to above, it’s the President of the Senate who is appointed
the President of French Republic if the latter is prevented from
doing so, if he falls ill or resigns.
• Thus, a case of power vacuum is prevented, in case the President’s
office falls vacant.
• This interim is limited to the time needed to organize a presidential
election (in practice, it lasts around 50 days).
• Senators are elected indirectly by approximately 150,000 officials,
known as the grands électeurs, including regional councillors,
 department councillors, mayors, municipal councillors in large
communes, as well as members of the National Assembly.
• However, 90% of the electors are delegates appointed by councillors.
This system introduces a bias in the composition of the Senate
favoring rural areas.
• As a consequence, while the political majority changes frequently in
the National Assembly, the Senate has remained politically right

• France is divided into eighteen administrative regions of which

thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while
the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with
the overseas collectivities, which have a semi-autonomous status).

• All of the thirteen metropolitan administrative regions are further

subdivided into two to thirteen administrative departments
 • The commune is a level of administrative division in the French
Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and
incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada

Prominent Features of the French Constitution

Organic Law:
• An organic or fundamental law is one that forms the foundation of a
government or organization. A Constitution is a particular form of
organic law for a sovereign state.
• The French Constitution has certain laws mentioned as organic
laws. Laws made by the Parliament and the orders of the
Executive must confirm to the Organic laws.
• So these laws have to be reviewed by a body known as the
Constitutional Council.
• It has 9 members – three are representatives of the President,
three are representatives of the French National Assembly, and
the remaining three are representatives of the Senate.
• They are appointed for terms of nine years, and to help ensure their
independence, their terms are not renewable
• The appointment of Council members is staggered, so that one third
of the Council is replaced every three years.
• There is one exception to these rules on appointments and term
limits; former presidents of the Republic have the right to sit on the
Constitutional Council for life. That is why there are currently ten
members on the Constitutional Council,
• The Constitutional Council may also be asked to review a bill by a
group of 60 members of the National Assembly or 60 senators. In
neither case the Constitutional Council could strike down a law
after it had been signed and promulgated

JUDICIARY
 The Cour de cassation (Court of cassation) has jurisdiction to hear
cases in civil, commercial, social or criminal matters, which are
first judged by the so-called courts of first instance (judicial
tribunal, commercial courts, employment tribunals…).
 Depending on the importance of the dispute, the decisions of these
courts are either given at last instance, when they concern the
smallest cases, or, in most cases, at first instance; they may then be
appealed to a court of appeal, where they are re-examined in all their
aspects, in fact and in law.
 Final decisions of the courts of first instance and decisions of the
courts of appeal may themselves be appealed to the Cour de
cassation
 It had the authority to overturn legislation based on article 55 of the
Constitution, which states that international treaties have a higher
authority than French laws
High Council of Justice:
The purpose is the nomination of the judges. This body is headed
by the President and the members of the Judiciary. The President is
also known as the ‘guardian of Judiciary’.

Economic and Social Council:

Constitutional advisory body on social and economic issues.

Secularism:
• France follows the rigid principle of secularism unlike Indian
secularism which respects all religions equally.
• The French model of secularism follows the principle of strict
separation of Church and State, freedom of conscience and freedom
to exercise any faith.
• The state does not support religious activities but also not
interfere in private religious practices. It prohibits any visible
religious symbols in public space.
• This model leaves no scope for the idea of the state-supported
religious reforms.

Amendment of the Constitution

• Rigid process
• Both the Houses of Parliament have to pass a resolution by 3/5th
majority.
• The President may also choose to refer the amendment to people by
referendum.