French constitutional law of 23 July 2008

The Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic (French: loi constitutionnelle de modernisation des institutions de la Ve République) was enacted into French constitutional law by the Parliament of France in July 2008, to reform state institutions.

History

Proposed in Nicolas Sarkozy's manifesto during the French presidential election of 2007, the stated goal of the changes was to modernise the institutions of the Fifth Republic. The Comité de réflexion et de proposition sur la modernisation et le rééquilibrage des institutions,[1] (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. It was composed primarily of constitutional jurists and political personalities with legal competence. Following three months of work, it submitted its report to the President of the Republic on 29 October 2007.

This resulted in a bill, which was approved by the National Assembly on 9 July 2008 and by the Senate on the 17th.[2]

The bill re-evaluated the role of the executive and augmented the parliament's powers. Some of the proposals were not ratified, such as the introduction of Proportional representation for elections of the National Assembly, the ban on dual mandates (Cumul des mandats), nor the reform of representation in the Senate. Others clauses, such as a two-term limit for the President of the Republic were added.

The final vote was submitted to Congress on 21 July 2008 and ratified by only one vote more than the required three-fifths (60%) majority of votes cast. The press drew attention to the aye vote of Jack Lang, who had broken his party whip. The President of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, also voted,[3] which defied the tradition whereby the President of a sitting abstains from voting.[4] Without those two votes the bill would not have passed.

The text of the law received the Great Seal of France on 1 October 2008.

Modifications[5]

In the following translation, where appropriate, a direct English equivalent of the French term is used. Otherwise, in order to make the terminology intelligible to at least some English speakers, terms used in the United Kingdom parliament are substituted. For example une assemblée is the equivalent of a house of the U.K. parliament. Only rarely, is equivalence complete. For example, the Senate of France is in only some respects, the equivalent of the House of Lords.

Details of the vote

The votes of the parliamentarians met in Congress were distributed as follows.:[9]

Summary
Number of voters Votes cast Required majority Yes votes No votes
905 896 538 539 357
Votes by party
Party group For Against Abstention Non-voters Total
  Union for a Popular Movement 310 6[10] 1[11] 0 317
  Socialist, Radical and Citizen 10[12] 194 0 0 204
  Democratic and Republican Left 0 24 0 0 24
  New Centre 23 0 1[13] 0 24
  Non-Inscrits 1[14] 6[15] 0 0 7
TOTAL 344 230 2 0 576
Vote of the Senators
Party group For Against Abstention Non-voters Total
  Union for a Popular Movement 158 1[16] 0 0 159
  Socialist 0 95 0 0 95
  Centrist Union-UDF 24 2[17] 4[18] 0 30
  Communist, Republican and Citizen 0 23 0 0 23
  RDSE 11 4[19] 2[20] 0 17
  Non-Inscrits 2[21] 2[22] 1[23] 1[24] 6
TOTAL 195 127 7 1 330

Notes and references

  1. http://www.comite-constitutionnel.fr/accueil/index.php
  2. http://www.senat.fr/dossierleg/pjl07-365.html Reference consulted 22 July 2008.
  3. Website of the National Assembly of France, Details of the public scrutiny of the Constitutional Law Bill.
  4. "Sarkozy's flagship French reform passes by two votes", AFP, 21 July 2008.
  5. The articles of the constitution of the Fifth Republic (Constitution of 4 October 1958) may be found (in French) on the Legifrance website. The following is a translation of part of a summary of the salient points of the 2008 amendments. For links to explanations of terms relating the government of France, see 'Government of France' in the categories box at the foot of this page.
  6. This and other similar links go to French Wikipedia pages quoting the corresponding article of the French Fifth Republic's Constitution (in French).
  7. Organic law – which specifies the organization of public powers established by the Constitution (Loi organique, qui précise l'organisation des pouvoirs publiques établis par la Constitution. La Petit Larousse Illustrée 2007)
  8. However, the revision bill is not presented for a referendum when the president of the Republic decides to submit it to Parliament sitting in Congress; in that case, the revision bill is approved only if it gains a majority of three-fifths of the votes cast. The office of Congress is that of the National Assembly. (Toutefois, le projet de révision n'est pas présenté au référendum lorsque le Président de la République décide de le soumettre au Parlement convoqué en Congrès ; dans ce cas, le projet de révision n'est approuvé que s'il réunit la majorité des trois cinquièmes des suffrages exprimés. Le bureau du Congrès est celui de l'Assemblée Nationale. Article 89 para.3)
  9. (French) Website of the Assemblée Nationale, Details of the public scrutiny of the Constitutional Law for the modernisation of the institutions of the Fifth Republic.
  10. Henri Cuq, Guy Geoffroy, François Goulard, Jean-Pierre Grand, Jacques Le Guen and Jacques Myard
  11. André Wojciechowski
  12. Members of PRG : Gérard Charasse, Paul Giacobbi, Annick Girardin, Joël Giraud, Sylvia Pinel, Dominique Orliac ; members of the PS : Jack Lang, Albert Likuvalu ; Various left : Chantal Berthelot, Jeanny Marc
  13. Philippe Folliot, allied to New Centre but not a member of it.
  14. François-Xavier Villain (DLR)
  15. Members of MoDem: Abdoulatifou Aly, François Bayrou, Jean Lassalle; members of MPF: Véronique Besse, Dominique Souchet; member of DLR : Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
  16. André Lardeux
  17. Jacqueline Gourault and Jean-Jacques Jégou, members of the MoDem
  18. Members of the MoDem : Denis Badré, Marcel Deneux, Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe ; ex-member of the PS : André Vallet
  19. Members of the PRG : Nicolas Alfonsi, Yvon Collin, Gérard Delfau ; member of the MPF : Bernard Seillier
  20. Michel Charasse (ex-member of the PS) and François Fortassin, member of the PRG
  21. Sylvie Desmarescaux and Alex Türk (various parties of the Right)
  22. Philippe Darniche et Bruno Retailleau, members of the MPF
  23. Philippe Adnot, president of the Mouvement libéral et modéré (Liberal and Moderate Movement)
  24. Jean Louis Masson

Bibliography

External links