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Politics of France Politique en France | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Polity type | Unitary semi‑presidential constitutional republic |
| Constitution | Fifth Republic Constitution |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Parliament |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | Palace of Versailles |
| Upper house | |
| Name | Senate |
| Presiding officer | Gérard Larcher, President of the Senate |
| Appointer | Indirect election |
| Lower house | |
| Name | National Assembly |
| Presiding officer | Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly |
| Appointer | Direct popular vote (two rounds if necessary) |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of State | |
| Title | President of the Republic |
| Currently | Emmanuel Macron |
| Appointer | Direct popular vote (two rounds if necessary) |
| Head of Government | |
| Title | Prime Minister |
| Currently | Gabriel Attal |
| Appointer | President of the Republic |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Government of France |
| Current cabinet | Attal government |
| Leader | Prime Minister |
| Appointer | President of the Republic |
| Headquarters | Hôtel Matignon |
| Ministries | 19 |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary of France |
 |
|---|
The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic".[1] The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of National Sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789".
The political system of France consists of an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the president of the republic and the Government. The Government consists of the prime minister and ministers. The prime minister is appointed by the president, and is responsible to Parliament. The government, including the prime minister, can be revoked by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, through a motion of no-confidence; this ensures that the prime minister is practically always supported by a majority in the lower house (which, on most topics, has prominence over the upper house).
Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the Senate. It passes statutes and votes on the budget; it controls the action of the executive through formal questioning on the floor of the houses of Parliament and by establishing commissions of inquiry. The constitutionality of the statutes is checked by the Constitutional Council, members of which are appointed by the president of the republic, the president of the National Assembly, and the president of the Senate. Former presidents of the republic can also be members of the Council if they want to (Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing and Jacques Chirac were the only former presidents that participated into the council's work).
The independent judiciary is based upon civil law system which evolved from the Napoleonic Codes. It is divided into the judicial branch (dealing with civil law and criminal law) and the administrative branch (dealing with appeals against executive decisions), each with their own independent supreme court of appeal: the Court of Cassation for the judicial courts and the Conseil d'Etat for the administrative courts.[2] The French government includes various bodies that check abuses of power and independent agencies.
While France is a unitary state, its administrative subdivisions—regions, departments and communes—have various legal functions, and the national government is prohibited from intruding into their normal operations. France was a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community, later the European Union. As such, France has transferred part of its sovereignty to European institutions, as provided by its constitution. The French government therefore has to abide by European treaties, directives and regulations. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices France was 2023 the 10th most electoral democratic country in the world.[3]
Constitution
A popular referendum approved the constitution of the French Fifth Republic in 1958, greatly strengthening the authority of the presidency and the executive with respect to Parliament.
The constitution does not contain a bill of rights in itself, but its preamble mentions that France should follow the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, as well as those of the preamble to the constitution of the Fourth Republic. This has been judged to imply that the principles laid forth in those texts have constitutional value, and that legislation infringing on those principles should be found unconstitutional if a recourse is filed before the Constitutional Council.[4] Also, recent modifications of the Constitution have added a reference in the preamble to an Environment charter that has full constitutional value, and a right for citizens to contest the constitutionality of a statute before the Constitutional Council.[5]
The foundational principles of the constitution include: the equality of all citizens before law, and the rejection of special class privileges such as those that existed prior to the French Revolution; presumption of innocence; freedom of speech; freedom of opinion including freedom of religion; the guarantee of property against arbitrary seizure; the accountability of government agents to the citizenry.
Executive
France has a semi-presidential system of government, with both a president and a prime minister. The prime minister is responsible to the French Parliament. A presidential candidate is required to obtain a nationwide majority of non-blank votes at either the first or second round of balloting, which implies that the president is somewhat supported by at least half of the voting population.
President
As a consequence, the president of France is the pre-eminent figure in French politics. He appoints the prime minister and chairs the Council of Ministers (Cabinet meeting).[6] Though the president may not de jure dismiss the prime minister, nevertheless, if the prime minister is from the same political side, they can, in practice, have them resign on demand (De Gaulle is said to have initiated this practice "by requiring undated letters of resignation from his nominees to the premiership," though more recent presidents have not necessarily used this method[7]). The president appoints the ministers, ministers-delegate and secretaries on the prime minister's proposal. When the president's political party or supporters control parliament, the president is the dominant player in executive action, choosing whomever he wishes for the government, and having it follow his political agenda (parliamentary disagreements do occur, though, even within the same party).
However, when the president's political opponents control parliament, the president's dominance can be severely limited, as they must choose a prime minister and government who reflect the majority in parliament, and who may implement the agenda of the parliamentary majority. When parties from opposite ends of the political spectrum control parliament and the presidency, the power-sharing arrangement is known as cohabitation. Before 2002, cohabitation occurred more commonly, because the term of the president was seven years and the term of the National Assembly was five years. With the term of the president shortened to five years, and with the presidential and parliamentary elections separated by only a few months, this is less likely to happen.
Emmanuel Macron became president on 14 May 2017, succeeding François Hollande. In the 2022 presidential election President Macron was re-elected after beating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, in the runoff.[8] He was the first re-elected incumbent French president since 2002.[9]
| Candidate | Party | 1st round 10 April 2022 |
2nd round 24 April 2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||||
| Emmanuel Macron | La République En Marche! | LREM | 9,783,058 | 27.85 | 18,768,639 | 58.55 | |||
| Marine Le Pen | National Rally | RN | 8,133,828 | 23.15 | 13,288,686 | 41.45 | |||
| Jean-Luc Mélenchon | La France Insoumise | LFI | 7,712,520 | 21.95 | |||||
| Éric Zemmour | Reconquête | R! | 2,485,226 | 7.07 | |||||
| Valérie Pécresse | The Republicans | LR | 1,679,001 | 4.78 | |||||
| Yannick Jadot | Europe Ecology – The Greens | EELV | 1,627,853 | 4.63 | |||||
| Jean Lassalle | Résistons! | RES | 1,101,387 | 3.13 | |||||
| Fabien Roussel | French Communist Party | PCF | 802,422 | 2.28 | |||||
| Nicolas Dupont-Aignan | Debout la France | DLF | 725,176 | 2.06 | |||||
| Anne Hidalgo | Socialist Party | PS | 616,478 | 1.75 | |||||
| Philippe Poutou | New Anticapitalist Party | NPA | 268,904 | 0.77 | |||||
| Nathalie Arthaud | Lutte Ouvrière | LO | 197,094 | 0.56 | |||||
| Total | 35,132,947 | 100.00 | 32,057,325 | 100.00 | |||||
| Valid votes | 35,132,947 | 97.80 | 32,057,325 | 91.34 | |||||
| Blank ballots | 543,609 | 1.51 | 2,233,904 | 6.37 | |||||
| Invalid ballots | 247,151 | 0.69 | 805,249 | 2.29 | |||||
| Turnout | 35,923,707 | 73.69 | 35,096,478 | 71.99 | |||||
| Not voted | 12,824,169 | 26.31 | 13,655,861 | 28.01 | |||||
| Registered voters | 48,747,876 | 48,752,339 | |||||||
| Source: Minister of the Interior[10] | |||||||||
Government
The prime minister leads the government, which comprises junior and senior ministers.[11] It has at its disposal the civil service, government agencies, and the armed forces.[12] The government is responsible to Parliament,[12] and the National Assembly may pass a motion of censure,[13] forcing the resignation of the government. This, in practice, forces the government to reflect the same political party or coalition which has the majority in the Assembly. Ministers have to answer questions from members of Parliament, both written and oral; this is known as the questions au gouvernement ("questions to the government").[14] In addition, ministers attend meetings of the houses of Parliament when laws pertaining to their areas of responsibility are being discussed.
Government ministers cannot pass legislation without parliamentary approval, though the prime minister may issue autonomous regulations or subordinated regulations (décrets d'application) provided they do not infringe on the Parliament domain, as detailed in the constitution. Ministers, however, can propose legislation to Parliament; since the Assembly is usually politically allied to the ministers, such legislation is, in general, very likely to pass (unless there is a hung parliament as it is currently the case as of 2023). However, this is not guaranteed, and, on occasion, the opinion of the majority parliamentarians may differ significantly from those of the executive, which often results in a large number of amendments.
The prime minister can commit the government's responsibility on a bill (effectively treating the bill as an issue of a confidence vote), under the provisions of article 49.3 of the Constitution. The bill is then considered passed unless the National Assembly votes a motion of no-confidence (French: motion de censure), in which case the bill is defeated and the government has to resign. As of 2006[update], the use of this article was the "First Employment Contract" proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin,[15] a move that greatly backfired.[16]
Traditionally, the government comprises members of three ranks. Ministers are the most senior members of the government; deputy ministers (ministres délégués) assist ministers in particular areas of their portfolio; state secretaries (secrétaires d'État) assist ministers in less important areas, and attend government meetings only occasionally. Before the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, some ministers of particular political importance were called "Ministers of State" (ministres d'État); the practice has continued under the Fifth Republic in a mostly honorific fashion: ministers styled "Minister of State" are of higher importance in the gouvernement and have the ability to deputize for the PM and the authority to hold inter-ministerial meetings.[17]
The number of ministries and the division of responsibilities and administrations between them varies from government to government. While the name and exact responsibility of each ministry may change, one generally finds at least:
- Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Employment (taxes, budget)
- Ministry of the Interior (law enforcement, relationships with local governments)
- Ministry of Justice and Keeper of the Seals (prisons, running the court system, supervision of the prosecution service)
- Ministry of National Education
- Ministry of Defence
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministry of Transportation
(For more on French ministries, see French government ministers.)
The government has a leading role in shaping the agenda of the houses of Parliament. It may propose laws to Parliament, as well as amendments during parliamentary meetings. It may make use of some procedures to speed up parliamentary deliberations.
The government holds weekly meetings (usually on Wednesday mornings): this weekly meeting, known as the Council of Ministers, is chaired by the president and usually takes place at the Élysée Palace. The Council of Ministers is the executive's formal decision-making body since government bills need to be approved by the Council to be introduced in Parliament, some decrees are signed during the meeting (decrees in Council of Ministers) and some constitutional powers have to be approved by the Council beforehand to be invoked.
The current French prime minister is Gabriel Attal since 9 January 2024.
Statutory instruments and delegated legislation
The French executive has a limited power to establish regulation or legislation. (See below for how such regulations or legislative items interact with statute law.)
Decrees and other executive decisions
Only the president and prime minister sign decrees (décrets), which are akin to US executive orders. Decrees can only be taken following certain procedures and with due respect to the constitution and statute law.
- The president signs decrees appointing and dismissing most senior civil and military servants, for positions listed in the Constitution or in statutes. He also signs decrees establishing some regulations (décrets en conseil des ministres). All such decrees must be countersigned by the prime minister and the ministers concerned.
- The prime minister signs decrees establishing regulations, which the concerned ministers countersign. In some areas, they constitute primary legislation, in some others they must be subordinate to an existing statute. In some cases, statutes impose a compulsory advisory review by the Conseil d'État (décrets en Conseil d'État), as opposed to décrets simples.[18]
The individual ministers issue ministerial orders (arrêtés) in their fields of competence, subordinate to statutes and decrees.
Contrary to a sometimes used polemical cliché, that dates from the French Third Republic of 1870–1940, with its decrees-law (décrets-lois), neither the president nor the prime minister may rule by decree (outside of the narrow case of presidential emergency powers).
Ordinances
The executive cannot issue decrees in areas that the Constitution puts under the responsibility of legislation, issued by Parliament. Still, Parliament may, through a habilitation law, authorize the executive to issue ordinances (ordonnances), with legislative value, in precisely-defined areas.[19] Habilitation laws specify the scope of the ordinance. After the ordinance is issued, the government has to propose a ratifying bill in order that the ordinance becomes a law. If Parliament votes "no" to ratification, the ordinance is cancelled. Most of the time, ratification is made implicitly or explicitly through a Parliament act that deals with the subject concerned, rather than by the ratification act itself.[20]
The use of ordinances is normally reserved for urgent matters, or for technical, uncontroversial texts (such as the ordinances that converted all sums in French francs to euros in the various laws in force in France).[21] There is also a practice of using ordinances to transpose European Directives into French law, to avoid late transposition of Directives, which happens often and is criticized by the EU Commission. Ordinances are also used to codify law into codes – to rearrange them for the sake of clarity without substantially modifying them. They are also sometimes used to push controversial legislation through, such as when Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin created new forms of work contracts in 2005.[22] The opposition then criticizes the use of ordinances in such contexts as anti-democratic and demeaning to Parliament. Note however that since the National Assembly can dismiss the government through a motion of censure, the government necessarily relies on a majority in Parliament, and this majority would be likely to adopt the controversial law anyway.
Internal limits of the executive branch; checks and balances
The general rule is that government agencies and the civil service are at the disposal of the government. However, various agencies[23] are independent agencies (autorités administratives indépendantes)[24] that have been statutorily excluded from the executive's authority, although they belong in the executive branch.
These independent agencies have some specialized regulatory power, some executive power, and some quasi-judicial power. They are also often consulted by the government or the French Parliament seeking advice before regulating by law. They can impose sanctions that are named "administrative sanctions" sanctions administratives. However, their decisions can still be contested in a judicial court or in an administrative court.
Some examples of independent agencies:
- The Banque de France, the central bank, is independent (financial and economic code, L141 and following). This was a prerequisite for integrating the European System of Central Banks.
- The Electronic Communications & Posts Regulation Authority (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes (ARCEP)), which was previously named Telecommunication Regulation Authority (Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART)), is an independent administrative authority for the open markets of telecommunications and postal services.
- The Energy Regulation Commission (Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE)) is an independent administrative authority for the open markets of gas and electricity.
- The Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF)) regulates securities markets.
- The Higher Council of the Audiovisual (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA)) supervises the granting and withdrawing of emission frequencies for radio and television, as well as public broadcasting.
- The National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (Commission Nationale des Comptes de Campagne et des Financements Politiques) regulates the financing and spending of political parties and political campaigning.
Public media corporations should not be influenced in their news reporting by the executive in power, since they have the duty to supply the public with unbiased information.[citation needed] For instance, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) is an independent public corporation. Its resources must come solely from its commercial sales. The majority of the seats in its board are held by representatives of the French press.
The government also provides for watchdogs over its own activities; these independent administrative authorities are headed by a commission typically composed of senior lawyers or of members of the Parliament. Each of the two chambers of the Parliament often has its own commission, but sometimes they collaborate to create a single Commission nationale mixte paritaire. For example:
- The National Commission for Computing & Freedom (Commission nationale informatique et libertés (CNIL)); public services must request authorization from it before establishing a file with personal information, and they must heed its recommendations; private bodies must only declare their files; citizens have recourse before the commission against abuses.
- The National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions (Commission nationale de contrôle des interceptions de sécurité (CNCIS)); the executive, in a limited number of circumstances concerning national security, may request an authorization from the commission for wiretaps (in other circumstances, wiretaps may only be authorized within a judicially-administered criminal investigation).
In addition, the duties of public service limit the power that the executive has over the French Civil Service. For instance, appointments, except for the highest positions (the national directors of agencies and administrations), must be made solely on merit (typically determined in competitive exams) or on time in office. Certain civil servants have statuses that prohibit executive interference; for instance, judges and prosecutors may be named or moved only according to specific procedures. Public researchers and university professors enjoy academic freedom; by law, they enjoy complete freedom of speech within the ordinary constraints[citation needed] of academia.
Some important directorates and establishments
The government also provides specialized agencies for regulating critical markets or limited resources, and markets set up by regulations. Although, as part of the administration, they are subordinate to the ministers, they often act with a high degree of independence.
- The General Directorate of Competition, Consumption & Repression of Frauds (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes (DGCCRF)) regulates and controls the legality and safety of products and services available on the markets open to competition for all economic actors and private consumers, and can deliver administrative sanctions in case of abuses.
- The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (Direction générale de l'aviation civile (DGAC)) regulates the traffic in the national air space and delivers the authorizations for airways companies and other private or public organizations and people.
- The National Agency for Employment (Agence nationale pour l'emploi (ANPE)) maintained[when?] a public registry for the allocation of social benefits to unemployed people (but now[update] a single registry is shared with the independent ASSEDIC paying them, a joint association of employers and workers unions), assists them as well as employers seeking people, and controls them. The French State names its general director and the Parliament provides for its finances and personnel, but it only fills one-third of the seats at its decision board of directors (the other seats are shared equally by unions of employers and of workers). ANPE and Assédic merged in 2008 to form Pôle emploi.
- The National Agency of Frequencies (Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR)), a public establishment of an administrative character,[25] regulates and maintains the allocation of radio frequency spectrum resources along with other international frequencies regulators and national regulators (the ARCOM (ex-CSA) and ARCEP) or public ministries, controls the operators on the national territory, and publishes compliance standards for manufacturers of radioelectric equipment.
Organization of government services
Each ministry has a central administration (administration centrale), generally divided into directorates. These directorates are usually subdivided into divisions or sub-directorates. Each directorate is headed by a director, named by the President in Council. The central administration largely stays the same, regardless of the political tendency of the executive in power.
In addition, each minister has a private office, which is composed of members whose nomination is politically determined, called the cabinet. Cabinets are quite important and employ numbers of highly qualified staff to follow all administrative and political affairs. They are powerful, and have been sometimes considered as a parallel administration, especially (but not only) in all matters that are politically sensitive. Each cabinet is led by a chief-of-staff entitled directeur de cabinet.
The state also has distributive services spread throughout French territory, often reflecting divisions into régions or départements. The prefect, the representative of the national government in each région or département, supervises the activities of the distributive services in his or her jurisdiction. Generally, the services of a certain administration in a région or département are managed by a high-level civil servant, often called director, but not always; for instance, the services of the Trésor public (Treasury) in each département are headed by a treasurer-paymaster general, appointed by the president of the republic. In the last several[quantify] decades, the departmental conseil général (see "Local Government" below) has taken on new responsibilities and plays an important role in administering government services at the local level.
The government also maintains public establishments. These have a relative administrative and financial autonomy, to accomplish a defined mission. They are attached to one or more supervising authorities. These are classified into several categories:
- public establishments of an administrative character, including, for instance:
- public establishments of an industrial and commercial character, including, for instance, CEA and Ifremer
Note that in administrations and public establishments of an administrative character operate under public law, while establishments of an industrial and commercial character operate mostly under private law. In consequence, in the former, permanent personnel are civil servants, while normally in the latter, they are contract employees.
In addition, the government owns and controls all, or the majority, of shares of some companies, like Electricité de France, SNCF or Areva.
Social security organizations, though established by statute and controlled and supervised by the state, are not operated nor directly controlled by the national government. Instead, they are managed by the "social partners" (partenaires sociaux) – unions of employers such as the MEDEF and unions of employees. Their budget is separate from the national budget.
Shadow Cabinet of France
A Shadow Cabinet is sometimes formed by the opposition parties in the National Assembly, though this is uncommon.
Legislative branch
The Parliament of France, making up the legislative branch, consists of two houses: the National Assembly and the Senate; the National Assembly is the pre-eminent body.
Parliament meets for one nine-month session each year: under special circumstances the president can call an additional session. Although parliamentary powers have diminished from those existing under the Fourth Republic, the National Assembly can still cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the total Assembly membership votes to censure. It happened once under the 5th Republic: in 1962 when the parliamentary majority of the time voted a motion of censure against the government of George Pompidou.[26]
The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament (the cabinet has control over the parliamentary order of business 50% of the time, 2 out of 4 weeks per month). The government can also 'commit its responsibility' on a bill it has proposed (effectively treating the bill as an issue of a vote of confidence), and unless a motion of no confidence is introduced (within 24 hours after the proposal) and passed (within 48 hours of introduction – thus full procedures last at most 72 hours), the bill is considered adopted without a vote.
Members of Parliament enjoy parliamentary immunity.[27] Both assemblies have committees that write reports on a variety of topics. If necessary, they can establish parliamentary enquiry commissions with broad investigative power.
National Assembly
The National Assembly is the principal legislative body. Its 577 deputies are directly elected for five-year terms in local majority votes, and all seats are voted on in each election.[28]
The National Assembly may force the resignation of the government by voting a motion of censure. For this reason, the prime minister and their government are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president and assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as cohabitation. While motions of censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, they are usually purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the government is never overthrown by the Assembly provided that the governing party/coalition has a working majority in the Chamber (which is no longer the case for the current ruling coalition as a result of the 2022 legislative election).
Latest election
The June 2022 legislative election saw President Macron's centrist coalition (ENS) losing its working majority in the National Assembly: enjoying a 115-seat majority before the election, the governing coalition was reduced to being the largest bloc in a hung parliament, falling 38 short of an overall majority.
By contrast, a far-left-to-centre-left coalition (NUPES) increased its total number of seats to 151 and a right-wing populist party (RN) won a record number of seats, going from 8 to 89 MPs, thus becoming the largest opposition party in Parliament.
A centre-right-to-right-wing party (LR) was left holding the balance of power in this hung parliament.
