A SHORT GUIDE TO THE

FRENCH POLITICAL SYSTEM

 Introduction
 The Presidency
 The Executive
 The National Assembly
 The Senate
 Political Parties
 The Judiciary
 Local Government
 Political Reform
 Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Although the Greeks might claim that democracy originates from the ancient city state of Athens, the
French could plausibily argue that modern democracy emanates from the French Revolution of 1789 -
although the course of democracy in France has hardly run smoothly since then.

Indeed, unlike the American political system [click here] and the British political system [click here]
which essentially have existed in their current form for centuries, the French political system has
evolved through five major constitutional models as follows:

 First Republic: 1792-1804

 Second Republic: 1848-1852
 Third Republic: 1870-1940
 Fourth Republic: 1946-1958
 Fifth Republic: 1958-present

So the current form of the French system is a relatively recent construct dating from 1958 and today's
Fifth Republic - which centralises substantial power in the President - is a response to the political
weaknesses of the pre-Second World War Third Republic and post-war Fourth Republic.

The Fifth Republic came about following a political crisis over France's colonial war in Algeria, when
Charles de Gaulle took power under a new constitution which gave the President new executive
powers compared to the Fourth Republic, making the post uniquely powerful in European politics and
indeed politically - if not militarily - more powerful than the American Presidency.
The current constitution can only be changed with the support of three-fifths (60%) of the Congress
which is the body formed when both houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate,
meet at the Palace of Versailes to vote on proposed revisions to the constitution.

During the presidential election of 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy's manifesto proposed changes to modernise
the institutions of the Fifth Republic. The Comité de réflexion et de proposition sur la modernisation et
le rééquilibrage des institutions (literally : "A committee of reflection and proposal on the
modernisation and the re-balancing of the institutions") presided over by Édouard Balladur, a former
Prime Minister, was established in July 2007 and submitted its report to the President in October
2007. This resulted in a bill which was approved by both chambers of the legislature in 2008.

Controversially, the final approval was secured by only one vote more than the required three-fifths
majority of votes cast. Jack Lang, who broke his party whip, voted for the changes. The President of
the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, also voted for them which defied the tradition whereby the
President of the Assembly abstains from voting. Without those two votes, the bill would not have
passed.

The bill re-evaluated the role of the executive and strengthened the parliament's powers. The
President was banned from exercising more than two consecutive periods in office. There was
limitation of the exceptional power of the President after 30 and 60 days. However, some of the
proposals were not ratified, such as the introduction of proportional representation for election of the
National Assembly, the reform of representation in the Senate, and the ban on dual mandates.

THE PRESIDENCY

Four of France's five Republics have had presidents as their heads of state, making the French
presidency the oldest presidency in Europe still to exist in some form. However, in each of the
Republics' constitutions, the President's powers, functions and duties - and his relation with French
governments - have differed. Under the Third and Fourth Republic, which were parliamentary systems,
the office of President of the Republic was a largely ceremonial and powerless one. The constitution of
the current Fifth Republic greatly increased the President's powers and some have the described the
current position as a constitutional monarch.

So the Presidency is easily the most powerful position in the French political system. Duties include
heading the armed forces, appointment of the Prime Minister, power to dismiss the National Assembly,
chairing the Council of Ministers (equivalent to the Cabinet in Britain), appointing the members of the
highest appellate court and the Constitutional Court, chairing the Higher Council of the Judiciary,
negotiating all foreign treaties, and the power to call referenda, but all domestic decisions must be
approved by the Prime Minister. The President has a very limited form of suspensive veto: when
presented with a law, he or she can request another reading of it by Parliament, but only once per
law.

The official residence of the President is the Élysée Palace.

Since 1875, the President has been barred from appearing in person before the National Assembly or
the Senate in order to ensure that the executive and the legislature are kept separate. However, in
2008, a constitutional amendment was carried which enables the President to convene the Congress
of the French parliament in order to make a declaration. A debate may then follow his declaration,
without his presence.

Following a referendum in 1962, the President is elected by universal suffrage. Candidates for the
Presidency must obtain 500 sponsoring signatures of elected officials from at least 30 departments or
overseas territories. These elected officials are the more than 40,000 MPs, MEPs, senators, regional
councillors and mayors. The post is elected in a two-stage voting system. A candidate who receives
more than 50% of the vote in the first round is elected. However, if no candidate receives 50%, there
is a second round which is a run-off between the two candidates who secured the most votes in the
first round. This is held two weeks later. All elections are held on a Sunday.

In practice, no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the first round and therefore a second
round is always necessary. It is often said that the French vote with their heart in the first round and
with their head in the second round.

Following a referendum in 2000, the term of office for the Presidency is five years, a reduction from
the previous seven years. A President can seek a second term and normally secures it, but two
Presidents of the Fifth Republic have failed a re-election bid - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Nicolas
Sarkozy - and one - François Hollande - did not even seek a second term.

In the French political system, the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister - the
first- and second-highest authorities respectively - is critical. It is not always the case that these two
individuals come from the same political party or part of the political spectrum and, when they are of
different political persuasion (as was the case in 1986, 1993 and 1997), the two figures must practice
a process of 'cohabitation'.

In May 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent President and candidate of the conservative UMP, was
beaten in the second round of the Presidential election by the Socialist Party candidate François
Hollande, the self-styled 'Mr Normal', who gained 51.63% of the vote. Hollande was the first socialist
President in France for 17 years and had never previously held ministerial office. He soon became so
unpopular in the polls that he acquired the new nickname of Monsieur Flanby - a reference to a wobbly
French pudding.

The last but one presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. In the first round, for the
first time since the Second World War neither candidate of the two main political parties - the Socialist
Party and what is now called The Republicans - won enough votes to go forward into the second
round. Instead the candidates in the second round were Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (On The
Move) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front. Macron won the election, securing 66.1%% of the
vote. When he took office on 14 May 2017 at the age of just 39, he was the youngest person to head
the French state since Napoleon.

The last presidential election was held on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the
first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron now of La République En Marche! (LREM)
defeated Marine Le Pen now of National Rally and was re-elected as President. This time, however, the
margin of victory was smaller: 58.55% to 41.45%.

THE EXECUTIVE

The head of the government is the Prime Minister who is nominated by the majority party in the
National Assembly and appointed by the President for an indefinite term. The Prime Minister
recommends Ministers to the President, sets out Ministers' duties and responsibilities, and manages
the daily affairs of government. He issues decrees and is responsible for national defence. The PM's
office is in the Hôtel Matignon.

France’s centrist president Emmanuel Macron initially appointed a prime minister from the right:
Édouard Philippe, then 46, the mayor of the Normandy port town Le Havre, from Les Républicains.
However, after three years, in July 2020 Macron appointed a new Prime Minister: Jean Castex, a
career civil servant from the centre-right. In May 2022, a third Prime Minister was appointed:
Élisabeth Borne, the former Environment Minister and Labour Minister who served numerous Socialist
Party ministers before joining Macron's government. In January 2024, a fourth Prime Minister was
appointed: Gabriel Attal, formerly Education Minister, at 34 the youngest PM in modern history, and
the first openly gay person to hold the post.
The Council of Ministers - typically consisting of around 15-16 individuals - is headed by the Prime
Minister but chaired by the President. The total size of the ministerial team is typically 30-40. The
members of the Council are called Ministers, while the junior ministers are known as Secretaries of
State - the reverse of the nomenclature in the British political system.

It is customary for the President, in consultation with the Prime Minister, to select elected
representatives from the National Assembly for ministerial posts, but this is not a set rule. For
example, there has been Raymond Barre, Prime Minister (1976-81), who prior to that appointment
was a university economics lecturer, while Thierry Breton, Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry
(2005-07) was a business man.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

The lower house in the French political system is the National Assembly. This has 577 seats
representing single-member constituencies. The 2.5 million French people living abroad have the
opportunity to vote in one of 11 constituencies grouping areas of the world together.

Members of the National Assembly are directly elected in a two-stage voting system. A candidate who
receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round (provided at least 25% of the voters registered
in that constituency turn out) is elected. However, if no candidate receives 50%, there is a second
round which is a run-off between all those first round candidates who secured more than 12.5% of the
votes in that first round. This is held one week later. All elections are held on a Sunday.

Members of the National Assembly serve five-year terms.

The last Assembly elections were held on 12 and 19 June 2022. The next elections will be in June
2027.

The powers of the National Assembly in the Fifth Republic are limited compared to the position under
the Fourth Republic. The Assembly controls neither its sessions (dates and length are determined by
law) not its agenda (in practice, this is determined by the government). Essentially the role is limited
to budget and laws and the body tends to specialise in scrutinising day-to-day government business.
In cases of disagreement with the Senate, the position of the National Assembly prevails. Critics have
argued that the Assembly is weak in terms of setting its own agenda and holding the executive to
account.

Most members of the Assembly sit in a parliamentary group and each such group must have at least
15 members. The benefits of being in a parliamentary group are that groups have access to top
positions in the Assembly and speaking time in debates plus provision of public funding.

THE SENATE

The upper house in the French political system is the Senate. This currently has a total of 348 seats
(the number depends on population changes): 323 representing mainland France, 13 representing
French overseas territories, and 12 representing French nationals abroad. Many French Senators are
also high-level local officials.

Members of the Senate are indirectly elected by an electoral college of 88,000 made up of city
councillors and local officials which provides a rural and therefore Right-wing bias to the process.
Indeed, since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958, Right-wing parties have always held a
majority in the Senate until the elections of September 2011 when the Left took control for the first
time. In the Senate elections of September 2014, the far-Right Front National won representation -
two seats - for the first time and the Left lost its majority.
Since 2004, members of the Senate serve a six-year term (a reduction from the previous nine years)
and one-half of seats (previously one-third) come up for election every three years.

The next Senate elections will be held in September 2020.

As with the National Assembly, the role of the Senate under the Fifth republic is limited compared to
the position under the Fourth Republic. The Senate tends to specialise in constitutional matters and
foreign affairs including European integration (it has a 'listening post' in Brussels, the headquarters of
the European Union).

The Senate meets in the Luxembourg Palace.

POLITICAL PARTIES

France is a multi-party political system which means that often no one party wins a majority of seats
in the Assembly. Indeed the major parties themselves are often very fractional with shifting personal
allegiances.

French politics has historically been characterised by two politically opposed groupings but, more
recently, these traditional groupings have fallen away to be replaced by several new groupings, so
that elections are now a much more complicated battlefield.

The earlier bi-polar model consisted of two groups:

 one Left-wing centred around the French Socialist Party with minor partners such as Europe
Ecology – The Greens (EELV) and the Radical Party of the Left
 the other Right-wing and centred around what was the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic
(RPR), then its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), and now - since 2015 -
the renamed Les Répubicains, with support from the New Centre.

A new movement has been building on the support of the Right-wing, anti-immigrant Front National
(FN) which first made waves in the European Parliament elections of 1984 when it won almost 11% of
the votes. Then it did particularly well in the local elections of March 2014, actually topped the polls in
the European elections of May 2014, and went on to win the first round of the regional elections in
December 2015 (with almost 28% of the vote). The party is led by Marine Le Pen who came second in
the first and second rounds of the presidential elections of 2017 and 2022. The party has now been
renamed the National Rally (RN).

A newer movement was called La République En Marche or La REM (The Republic On The Move) which
was founded just over a year before the last but one Presidential and National Assembly elections by
Emmanuel Macron who had never been elected to any office but was a finance minister in the Socialist
Government. Macron won the presidential election in May 2017 and his new party won the National
Assembly elections in June 2017. Macron managed to be re-elected president in May 2022 but his
grouping, named Ensemble (Together), lost its overall majority in the National Assembly in June 2022.

The newest mass movement is led by far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon who did so well in the presidential
election of May 2022 when he was the candidate of his party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed).
For the National Assembly election in June 2022, he put together a new coalition called the New
Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) which brought together mainstream parties of the left- -
his party and the Socialist Party - with Communists and Greens.

So, in the National Assembly elections of 12 and 19 June 2022, Macron's party Ensemble lost its
majority in the legislature falling to 245 seats. The new far left grouping NUPES became the official
opposition with 131 seats. The far right National Rally jumped to 89 seats. And the Les Répubicains -
traditionally the dominant party of the Assembly - won just 64 seats.
The French take their politics seriously and voter participation can be very high (it was 79.48% in the
2012 Presidential election). However, voter participation varies significantly across elections with
recently a substantial level of abstention. In the Assembly election of 2017, turnout was only 43%. In
the latest election to the Assembly in June 2022, turnout was only a little higher at 46%.

In France, unlike most other democracies, the majority of national politicians are former civil servants
(often high-ranking). Most Presidents, many Cabinet members and a very large number of parliament
members graduated from the same prestigious school, the Ecole Nationale d'Administration.

THE JUDICIARY

France uses a civil legal system; that is, law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to
make law, but merely to interpret it. The basic principles of the rule of law were laid down in the
Napoleonic Code.

The highest appellate court in France is called the Cour de Cassation and the six chief judges are
appointed by the President. Unlike the supreme courts in other countries (such as the USA), it does
not have the power of judicial review.

The power of judicial review is vested in a separate Constitutional Court which is a unique creation of
the Fifth Republic. The court consists of nine members: one appointment made by each of the
President, the President of the Senate, and the President of the National Assembly every three years
for a nine-year, non-renewable term. This contrasts with the US system where the President makes all
appointments to the Supreme Court but then the appointments are for life.

All former Presidents of the Republic - known as "les sages" (the wise) - are de jure members of the
Constitutional Court. Currently there are three of them, giving the court a membership of 12.

The Court meets infrequently, only upon referral of legislation by the President, the Prime Minister or
at least 40 Deputies in the National Assembly.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Although there have been recent moves to decentralisation, France is still one of the most centralised
major countries in Europe and the world. It is colloquially known as mille-feuille, after the puff pastry
of many layers and lots of cream.

Administrative units with a local government in Metropolitan France (that is, the parts of France lying
in Europe) consist of:

 about 36,000 communes, headed by a municipal council and a mayor, grouped in

 96 départements, headed by a conseil général (general council) and its president, grouped in
 13 régions (recently reduced from 22), headed by a regional council and its president.

Essentially the system of local government has not been reformed since the time of Napoléon in the
early 1800s, but in December 2015 there were elections to 13 new super regions - down from the
previous 22 regions - and the new structure is estimated to save 15 billion Euros (over £12 billion).

As with the elections to the presidency and the national legislature, local and regional elections are
held on the two-round system. This was introduced in 1962 by Charles de Gaulle and has so far
proved effective at keeping extremists from too much power: the French say you vote first with your
heart, then your head.

POLITICAL REFORM
Following his campaign promises, in May 2018 President Macron tabled a suite of proposals for
political reform.

The headline proposals - which commanded a fair degree of support - were as follows:

 a reduction in the number of deputies in the National Assembly from 577 to 404
 a reduction in the number of members of the Senate from 348 to 244
 the introduction of proportional representation at national level for the election of 15% of
deputies
 a limit on elected members to serving three consecutive terms

Other, more procedural reforms - which had much less support - were as follows:

 new limits on deputies and senators to introduce amendments to bills

 a reduction in the time provided to find a compromise when deputies and senators do not
agree on the text of bills to benefit the version adopted by the National Assembly rather than
the Senate
 an increase in the control of parliament's agenda by the government

However, National Assembly debates on these proposals were suspended in July 2018. Now that
Macron has lost control of the Assembly, his proposals are history.

CONCLUSION

The election of Emmanuel Macron to the Presidency and the success of his new party in the Assembly
elections in 2017 totally transformed French politics. Macron's re-election as President but loss of a
majority in the Assembly in 2022 represents another dramatic restructuring of the French political
scene. We now have a centre-right President facing in the Assembly strong groupings of both the far
Right and the far Left. Modern France has never faced such a political situation. A lot of negotiation is
going to have to take place with considerable potential for policy gridlock.