French Parliament
{{about|the post-revolutionary and present-day institution|the ancien régime institution|Parlement}}
{{Short description|Bicameral legislature of France}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name = French Parliament
| native_name = {{Nobold|{{Lang|fr|Parlement français}}}}
| transcription_name =
| legislature = 17th legislature of the French Fifth Republic
| coa_pic = Armoiries république française.svg
| coa_res =
| coa_caption = Emblem of the French Republic
| coa-pic = Paris Assemblee Nationale DSC00074.jpg
| coa-res = 250px
| session_room = Garden facade of the Palace of Versailles, April 2011 (11).jpg
| session_room2 = Palais_Luxembourg_Sunset.JPG
| session_room3 = Concorde Assemblée Nationale.jpg
| session_res = 250px
| session_res2 = 220px
| session_res3 = 220px
| house_type = Bicameral
| body =
| houses = {{ublist
| Senate
}}
| leader1_type = President of the Senate
| leader1 = Gérard Larcher
| party1 = LR
| election1 = 1 October 2014
| leader2_type = President of the National Assembly
| leader2 = Yaël Braun-Pivet
| party2 = RE
| election2 = 28 June 2022
| members = {{ublist
| 925
| 348 (Senate)
| 577 (National Assembly)
}}
| house1 = Senate
| structure1 = 320px
| political_groups1 =
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} SR (133)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Socialist Party (France)}}}} S (64)
- {{Color box|#247AC1}} UC (56)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Rally of Democrats, Progressive and Independent}}}} RDPI (22)
- {{Color box|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}} CRCE (18)
- {{Color box|#66AAEE}} LIRT (18)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Europe Ecology – The Greens}}}} E (17)
- {{Color box|{{party color|European Democratic and Social Rally}}}} RDSE (16)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Independent}}}} RASNAG (4)
| house2 = National Assembly
| structure2 = 320px
|structure2_res=250px
| political_groups2 =
Government{{Cite web |last=Nossiter |first=Adam |date=4 December 2024 |title=France's Prime Minister Loses No-Confidence Vote and Is Expected to Resign |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/world/europe/france-no-confidence-barnier.html |website=The New York Times}} (213)
- {{Color box|{{party color|La République En Marche!}}}} ER (99){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|La République En Marche!}}}} Renaissance (92)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Territories of Progress}}}} RE-TdP (9)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Agir (France)}}}} RE-Agir (5)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous right}}}} DVD (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Radical Party (France)}}}} PRV (1)
- {{Color box|#279A48}} EC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous centre}}}} DVC (1)
- {{Color box|#FF8000}} GNC (1)
- {{Color box|#EE2C21}} Tapura (1)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} DR (47){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} LR (45)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous Right}}}} DVD (2)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|Democratic Movement (France)}}}} LD (36){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|Democratic Movement (France)}}}} MoDem (33)
- {{Color box|{{party color|La République En Marche!}}}} Renaissance (2)
- {{Color box|#09653C}} RSM (1)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|Horizons (political party)}}}} HOR (31){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|Horizons (political party)}}}} Horizons (23)
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} LR (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|La République En Marche!}}}} Renaissance (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Centrists}}}} LC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous Right}}}} DVD (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Centrist Alliance}}}} AC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Bonapartist}}}} CCB (1)}}
Opposition (364)
- {{Color box|{{party color|National Rally}}}} RN (126)
- {{Color box|#532480}} LFI (72){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|La France Insoumise}}}} LFI (69)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Left Party (France)}}}} PG (20)
- {{Color box|{{party color|New Anticapitalist Party}}}} NPA (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Ecological Revolution for the Living}}}} REV (1)
- {{Color box|#EE1E23}} RÉ 974 (1)
- {{Color box|#01A358}} Péyi-A (1)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|Socialist Party (France)}}}} SOC (66){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|Socialist Party (France)}}}} PS (63)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Place Publique}}}} PP (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Progressive Democratic Party of Guadeloupe}}}} PPDG (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Euskal Herria Bai}}}} EH Bai (1)}}
- {{Color box|#3E7F54}} E&S (38){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Ecologists (France)}}}} LÉ (25)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Génération.s}}}} G.s (6)
- {{Color box|{{party color|L'Après}}}} L'Après (4)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Ecology Generation}}}} GE (1)
- {{Color box|#8AD893}} T44 (1)
- {{Color box|#F13C46}} PD! (1)}}
- {{Color box|#38d4c7}} LIOT (21){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|Union of Democrats and Independents}}}} UDI (5)
- {{Color box|#DCBFA3}} R&PS (3)
- {{Color box|#E7511E}} FeC (2)
- {{Color box|#FF8C00}} PNC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} LR (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Socialist Party (France)}}}} PS (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous Right}}}} DVD (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous left}}}} DVG (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Radical Party (France)}}}} PRV (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Centrists}}}} LC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous left}}}} La Convention (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Archipelago Tomorrow}}}} AD (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|A here ia Porinetia}}}} AHIP (1)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}} GDR (17){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}} PCF (8)
- {{Color box|{{party color|For Réunion (political party)}}}} PLR (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Republican and Socialist Left}}}} GRS (1)
- {{Color box|#EB008B}} LP (1)
- {{Color box|#01A358}} Péyi-A (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Tāvini Huiraʻatira}}}} Tavini (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Caledonian Union}}}} UC (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Decolonization and Social Emancipation Movement}}}} MDES (1)
- {{Color box|#A83A3A}} PLD (1)}}
- {{Color box|#0F2E79}} AD! (16){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} LR (16)}}
- {{Color box|{{party color|Independent}}}} NI (8){{efn|
- {{Color box|{{party color|La République En Marche!}}}} Renaissance (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|The Republicans (France)}}}} LR (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Miscellaneous Right}}}} DVD (2)
- {{Color box|{{party color|National Rally}}}} RN (1)
- {{Color box|{{party color|Socialist Party (France)}}}} PS (1)}}
| committees1 =
| committees2 =
| joint_committees =
| voting_system1 = Indirect election
| voting_system2 = Two-round system
| last_election1 = 24 September 2023
| last_election2 = 30 June and 7 July 2024
| meeting_place = Aile du Midi, Château de Versailles (joint session)
| meeting_place2 = Palais du Luxembourg, meeting place of the French Senate
| meeting_place3 = Palais Bourbon, meeting place of the French National Assembly
| website = {{URL|https://www.parlement.fr|parlement.fr}}
|next_election1=By September 2026|next_election2=By June 2029}}
{{Politics of France}}
The French Parliament ({{langx|fr|Parlement français}}, {{IPA|fr|paʁləmɑ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛ|}}) is the bicameral parliament of the French Fifth Republic, consisting of the Senate ({{lang|fr|Sénat}}), and the National Assembly ({{lang|fr|Assemblée nationale}}). Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at separate locations in Paris: the Senate meets in the Palais du Luxembourg, the National Assembly convenes at the Palais Bourbon, both on the Rive Gauche.
Each house has its own regulations and rules of procedure. However, occasionally they may meet as a single house known as the Congress of the French Parliament ({{lang|fr|Congrès du Parlement français}}), convened at the Palace of Versailles, to revise and amend the Constitution of France.
History and name
The French Parliament, as a legislative body, should not be confused with the various parlements of the Ancien Régime in France, which were regional appeals courts with certain administrative functions varying from province to province and as to whether the local law was written and Roman, or customary common law.
The word "Parliament", in the modern meaning of the term, appeared in France in the 19th century, at the time of the constitutional monarchy of 1830–1848. It is never mentioned in any constitutional text until the Constitution of the 4th Republic in 1946. Before that time, reference was made to "les Chambres" or to each assembly, whatever its name, but unlike in Great Britain, the legislature as a whole had no name as such.
Across the varied constitutional structures used in France since 1791, all have had a legislative body of varying names, which has for most of its history been bicameral (though at times unicameralism and more unorthodox forms with three or more chambers have existed).
| class="wikitable" | ||||||
| style="background:#efefef;"
! Date !! Constitution !! Upper chamber !! Lower chamber !! Other chamber !! Joint sitting !! Single chamber | ||||||
| align="center" | 1791 | French Constitution of 1791 | Assemblée législative | ||||
| align="center" | 1793 | French Constitution of 1793 | Assemblée Nationale | ||||
| align="center" | 1795–1799 | Constitution of the Year III | Conseil des Anciens | Conseil des Cinq-Cents | |||
| align="center" | 1799–1802 | Constitution of the Year VIII | Sénat conservateur | Corps législatif | Tribunat | ||
| align="center" | 1802–1804 | Constitution of the Year X | Sénat conservateur | Corps législatif | Tribunat | ||
| align="center" | 1804–1814 | Constitution of the Year XII | Sénat conservateur | Corps législatif | TribunatThe Tribunate was abolished by a decree of the Senate in 1807, with its remaining functions and members absorbed into the Corps législatif. | ||
| align="center" | 1814–1815 | Charter of 1814 | Chamber of Peers | Chambre des députés des départements | |||
| align="center" | 1815 | Additional Act to the Constitutions of the Empire | Chamber of Peers | Chamber of Representatives | |||
| align="center" | 1830–1848 | Charter of 1830 | Chamber of Peers | Chamber of Deputies | |||
| align="center" | 1848–1852 | French Constitution of 1848 | Assemblée Nationale | ||||
| align="center" | 1852–1870 | French Constitution of 1852 | Sénat | Corps législatif | |||
| align="center" | 1871–1875 | Assemblée Nationale | |||||
| align="center" | 1875–1940 | French Constitutional Laws of 1875 | Sénat | Chamber of Deputies | Assemblée Nationale | ||
| align="center" | 1940–1944 | French Constitutional Law of 1940 | |||||
| align="center" | 1944–1946 | Provisional Government of the French Republic | Assemblée Nationale | ||||
| align="center" | 1946–1958 | French Constitution of 1946 | Conseil de la République | Assemblée Nationale | Parliament | ||
| align="center" | since 1958 | French Constitution of 1958 | Sénat | Assemblée Nationale | Parlement réuni en Congrès |
Election of representatives
The current Parliament is composed of two chambers: the Senate ({{Langx|fr|le Sénat}}) and the National Assembly, which have 349 and 577 members respectively.
Deputies, who sit in the National Assembly, are elected by first past the post voting in two rounds for a term of five years, notwithstanding a dissolution of the Assembly. Each constituency has around 100,000 residents, though some variance of size exists between rural and urban constituencies. For example, the Val-d'Oise constituency has 188,000 electors, while Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon near Canada has just 6,000.Source in French: Stéphane Mandard (2007) Un rapport préconisait le remodelage des circonscriptions avant les législatives de 2007, Le Monde. 7 juin 2007.
Senators are elected by indirect universal suffrage by the grands électeurs, who consist of deputies, regional councillors, departmental councillors and representatives of municipal councillors. The latter constitute 95% of the electoral body.
Organization and powers
Normally, the parliament meets for a single nine-month session each year but under special circumstances the President of France can call an additional session. Parliamentary power was limited after the establishment of the Fifth Republic; however, the National Assembly can still cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the legislators votes for a motion of no confidence. As a result, the government usually consists of members from the political party that dominates the Assembly and must be supported by a majority there to prevent a vote of no-confidence.
The Prime Minister and other government Ministers are appointed by the President, who is under no constitutional or other mandatory obligation to make governmental appointments from the ranks of the majority party in parliament. This is a safeguard that was introduced by the founder of the Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle, to attempt to prevent the disarray and horse-trading seen in the parliamentary regimes of the Third and Fourth Republics; however, in practice the prime minister and other ministers usually do belong to the majority party. A notable exception to this custom occurred during Nicolas Sarkozy's premiership when he appointed socialist ministers and Secretary of State-level junior ministers to his government. The rare periods during which the president is not from the same political party as the prime minister are usually known as cohabitation. The Cabinet of Ministers is led by the President rather than the Prime Minister.
The government (or, when it sits in session every Wednesday, the cabinet) exerts considerable influence on the agenda of Parliament. The government can link its term to a legislative text which it proposes, and unless a motion of censure is introduced within 24 hours of the proposal and passed within 48 hours of introduction – thus full procedures last at most 72 hours – the text is considered adopted without a vote. However, this procedure was limited by a 2008 constitutional amendment. Legislative initiative rests with the National Assembly.
Legislators enjoy parliamentary immunity.In France, for nearly a century, article 121 of the Penal Code punished with civic degradation all police officers, all prosecutors and all judges if they had caused, issued or signed a judgment, an order or a warrant, tending to a personal process or an accusation against a member of the Senate or of the legislative body, without the authorization prescribed by the Constitutions: {{cite journal|last1=Buonomo|first1=Giampiero|title=Immunità parlamentari: Why not?|journal=L'Ago e Il Filo|date=2014|url=https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89423966|access-date=12 April 2016|archive-date=11 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211140818/https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89423966|url-status=dead}} Both assemblies have committees that write reports on a variety of topics. If necessary, they can establish parliamentary commissions of inquiry with broad investigative power. However, this is almost never exercised because the majority can reject a proposition by the opposition to create an investigatory commission. Also, such a commission may only be created if it does not interfere with a judicial investigation, meaning that in order to cancel its creation, one just needs to press charges on the topic concerned by the investigatory commission. Since 2008, the opposition may impose the creation of an investigative commission once a year, even against the wishes of the majority. However, they still cannot lead investigations if there is a judicial case in process already (or that starts after the commission is formed).
List
{{Main|List of French legislatures}}
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|group=Note}}
References
Further reading
- Frank R. Baumgartner, "Parliament's Capacity to Expand Political Controversy in France", Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb. 1987), pp. 33–54. JSTOR: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/440044 440044]
- Marc Abélès, Un ethnologue à l'Assemblée. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2000. An anthropological study of the French National Assembly, of its personnel, lawmakers, codes of behaviors and rites.
External links
- {{Official website}} {{in lang|fr}}
- [http://www.parlements.org Site of the CHPP (Comité d'histoire parlementaire et politique) and of Parlement(s), Revue d'histoire politique] {{in lang|fr}}
{{French Parliaments}}
{{France topics}}
{{National bicameral legislatures}}
{{Parliaments in Europe}}