GOVERNMENT
The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by public referendum on September 28, 1958. It greatly strengthened the powers of the executive in relation to those of Parliament. Under this constitution, presidents were elected directly for a 7-year term since 1958. Beginning in 2002, the presidential term of office was reduced to 5 years and a constitutional reform passed on July 21, 2008 limits presidents to two consecutive terms in office. The president names the prime minister, presides over the cabinet, commands the armed forces, and concludes treaties. Traditionally, presidents under the Fifth Republic have tended to leave day-to-day policy-making to the prime minister and government; the five-year term of office is expected to make presidents more accountable for the results of domestic policies. Sarkozy, however, has been a hands-on manager and policymaker.
The president can submit questions to a national referendum and can dissolve the
National Assembly. In certain emergency situations, with the approval of
parliament, the president may assume dictatorial powers and rule by decree. The
main components of France's executive branch are the president, the prime
minister and government, and the permanent bureaucracies of the many ministries.
Led by a prime minister, who is the head of government, the cabinet is composed
of a varying number of ministers, ministers-delegate, and secretaries of state.
Parliament meets for one 9-month session each year. Under special circumstances
the president can call an additional session.
Under the constitution, the legislative branch has few checks on executive
power; nevertheless, the National Assembly can still cause a government to fall
if an absolute majority of the total Assembly membership votes to censure. The
Parliament is bicameral with a National Assembly and a Senate. The National
Assembly is the principal legislative body. Its deputies are directly elected to
5-year terms, and all seats are voted on in each election. Senators are chosen
by an electoral college and, under new rules passed in 2003 to shorten the term,
serve for six years, with one-half of the Senate being renewed every three
years. (As a transitional measure in 2004, 62 Senators were elected to 9-year
terms, while 61 were elected to 6-year terms; subsequently, all terms will be
six years.) The Senate's legislative powers are limited; the National Assembly
has the last word in the event of a disagreement between the two houses. The
government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament, although
the constitutional reform passed on July 21, 2008 grants new authority to the
Parliament to set its own agenda. The government also can declare a bill to be a
question of confidence, thereby linking its continued existence to the passage
of the legislative text; unless a motion of censure is introduced and voted, the
text is considered adopted without a vote. The constitutional reform passed on
July 21, 2008 has limited the process to the vote of the national budget, the
financing of the social security, and to one bill per session of the Parliament.
A distinctive feature of the French judicial system is that the Constitutional
Council protects basic rights when they might be potentially violated by new
laws and the Council of State protects basic rights when they might be violated
by actions of the state. The Constitutional Council examines legislation and
decides whether it conforms to the constitution. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court,
it considers only legislation that is referred to it by Parliament, the prime
minister, or the president. Moreover, it considers legislation before it is
promulgated. The Council of State has a separate function from the
Constitutional Council and provides recourse to individual citizens who have
claims against the administration. The Ordinary Courts--including specialized
bodies such as the police court, the criminal court, the correctional tribunal,
the commercial court, and the industrial court--settle disputes that arise
between citizens, as well as disputes that arise between citizens and
corporations. The Court of Appeals reviews cases judged by the Ordinary Courts.
Traditionally, decision-making in France has been highly centralized, with each of France's departments headed by a prefect appointed by the central government. In 1982, the national government passed legislation to decentralize authority by giving a wide range of administrative and fiscal powers to local elected officials. In March 1986, regional councils were directly elected for the first time, and the process of decentralization continues, albeit at a slow pace.
POLITICAL
CONDITIONS
Since his inauguration in May 2007 as France's sixth president under the Fifth Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy focused his first months in office on improving the performance of France's economy through liberalization of labor markets, higher education, and taxes. In the April 22, 2007 first round of presidential elections, Sarkozy, the leader of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, placed first; Socialist candidate Segolene Royal placed second; centrist Francois Bayrou placed third; and extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen placed fourth out of a field of 12 candidates. Sarkozy prevailed in the May 6, 2007 second round, defeating Royal by a 53.06% to 46.94% margin. Royal's loss marked the third straight defeat for the Socialist candidate in presidential elections.
President Sarkozy assumed office on May 16, 2007, the last day of Jacques
Chirac's official term. Sarkozy named Francois Fillon Prime Minister. Jean-Louis
Borloo became the second-highest ranking figure in the government, presiding
over an expanded Ministry of Environment, renamed the Ministry of Ecology and
Sustainable Planning. Legislative elections held on June 10 and 17, 2007 gave
the UMP a large parliamentary majority. A vote to elect French representatives
to the European Parliament will take place June 7, 2009 and balloting to elect
the Presidents of Regional Councils will occur in spring 2010.
In electing Nicolas Sarkozy, French voters endorsed the wide-ranging program of
reforms--including market-oriented social and economic reforms--that were the
focal point of Sarkozy's campaign, implicitly giving him the green light to try
and implement these reforms quickly, and allowing a way forward for overcoming
France's 2005 rejection of the EU constitutional treaty. By embracing a figure
long tagged as "pro-American," French voters also expressed their desire to renew trust in the U.S.-France relationship. During the campaign Sarkozy often ended his stump speeches--evoking Martin Luther King--by calling for a "French dream" of social equality, social mobility, and equal opportunity; and his first speech as President-elect assured his "American friends" that they could rely on France's friendship.
During his first year and a half in office, Sarkozy eliminated income taxes on overtime hours, lengthened the contribution period for retirees to receive full pensions, and established a "minimum service" requirement on strike days, among other reforms. He also completed a major revision of the French constitution, which gave parliament more oversight responsibility, particularly with respect to approval of long-term French military deployments abroad. French and EU analysts stress that longer-term reform measures must focus on reducing the future burden of ballooning public pension and health care budgets, as well as reducing labor-related taxes. Against a backdrop of gloomy economic news, France saw a pair of general strikes and massive but peaceful street protests (between 1 and 3 million people nationwide) in January and March 2009. Despite low public approval ratings, President Sarkozy is governing at a time when the main opposition, the Socialist Party (PS), is fragmented and in the minority in both houses of parliament.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Nicolas Sarkozy
Prime Minister--Francois Fillon
Foreign Minister--Bernard Kouchner
Ambassador to the United States--Pierre Vimont
Ambassador to the United Nations--Jean-Maurice Ripert
France
maintains an embassy
in the U.S. at 4101 Reservoir Rd. NW, Washington, DC 20007
(tel. 202-944-6000).
Government Type: Republic.
Constitution: September 28, 1958.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state); prime
minister (head of government). Legislative--bicameral Parliament
(577-member National Assembly, 319-member Senate). Judicial--Court
of Cassation (civil and criminal law), Council of State (administrative
court), Constitutional Council (constitutional law).
Subdivisions: 22 administrative regions containing 96 departments
(metropolitan France). Four overseas departments (Guadeloupe,
Martinique, French Guiana, and Reunion); five overseas territories
(New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and
French Southern and Antarctic Territories); and two special status
territories (Mayotte and St. Pierre and Miquelon).
Political parties: Rally for the Republic (Gaullists/conservatives);
Union for French Democracy (a center-right conglomerate of 5 parties:
Democratic Force, Republican Party, and Radical Party are the
three major components.) Socialist Party; Communist Party; National
Front; Greens; Ecology Generation; various minor parties.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
