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French Political System: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes}}
{{quote|'''Article I''' - Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility.
'''Article II''' - The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible [i.e., inviolable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.
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* Sections of the French army agreed with the French population in Algeria and partly backed former war hero Charles de Gaulle, who recommended the creation of the '''Fifth French Republic''' in 1958. When de Gaulle started negotiating with the Algerian nationalists, the French army parts attempted a military coup which [[Epic Fail|failed in three days]]. The Fifth French Republic is the current one.
France under the Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential unitary system, with both a President and a Prime Minister. This means, in theory, that both the President and PM have quite a bit of power. In [[Real Life]], however, it means:
* France's leader is the President when his party has the majority in the Parliament.
* When the President's party does not have the majority in the Parliament, France's leader is the Prime Minister, except with diplomacy and military matters, where the responsibilities are shared. This is called "cohabitation" and it can be tense, especially when the two most important men in France hate each other's guts. This system has happened three times since 1986:
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The president was elected for seven years until a reform in 2000 that turned it into a five-year term. The goal was to synchronize the presidential election with the legislative one, eliminating the odds of a cohabitation. The presidential election is in two turns: usually more than ten candidates run for the office, and only two remain during the second turn.
The French Parliament is officially a '''bi'''cameral legislature: the lower house (the National Assembly) is elected via Second Ballot (think Louisiana's run-off system), the PM is always from the political majority in the National Assembly, but the president chooses who from the winning party becomes PM (Theorically, the president chooses whoever he wants, but the PM needs the approval of the National Assembly to govern). The Senate is elected by a college of 150,000 great electors (all of them being elected officials, like deputies in the National Assembly, Mayors of the 36.000 French towns, etc...), and co-write the laws with the National Assembly: because its members are not directly elected, they are usually less known that the Deputies, and often accused of being in the Senate because they were unable to win a "real" election.
The president of the Senate is the "second most important person of the State". While not as powerful as the PM, if the President of the Republic dies or is incapacitated, the Senate president assumes his function until the President comes back to work or a new President is elected. Finally the economic, social and ecological council, which is made up of representatives of "professional organizations" (yep: trade unions have their own legislative chamber in France), is the third and least powerful chamber. (It only has a consultative role, yet going against it too often is not the smartest thing to do, being akin to declaring war against the very [[Hot-Blooded|easy to anger]] French unions. God knows how many governments have lost elections or became powerless because they pissed them off.)
The Constitutional Council supervises elections and rules on the constitutionnality of laws both before and after they take effect.
In this respect, it is similar to the United States Supreme Court, althought it is not at the top of the judicial hierarchy. Indeed, due to the particular organization of its judicial branch, it could be said that France has three Supreme Courts.
The " Cour de Cassation" is the court of last resort for all judicial cases ( civil and criminal) and the " Conseil d'Etat" (lit. Council of State) -which also has some advisory functions to the executive-, for all administrative cases.
The members of the Constitutional Council are 9 councillors nominated by the "three presidents" (President of the Republic, president of the National Assembly and president of the Senate). Former Presidents of the Republic are rightful members. The council currently has 12 members, with three surviving former Presidents of the Republic : Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
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** His unpopularity also comes from his cold disregard for massive popular protests, unlike Chirac who at least knew when to back down (see Juppé's failed 1995 reforms, or Dominique de Villepin's proposed changes to employment laws being scrapped in 2006 in the face of widespread opposition). He passed his first university reform (2007) during the summer vacation just after he was elected and the second one (2009) caused an unprecedented ''three month national strike'' in French universities. In 2008, he made the parliament ratify the Lisbon Treaty, even though the same treaty had been rejected by referendum in 2005<ref>More precisely, the rejected treaty was supposed to establish a "European Constitution", but the Lisbon Treaty is essentially the same thing, just rewritten a bit here and there</ref>. And in 2010, the reform to push back the retirement age ([[I Lied|which he had initially promised ''not'' to do]]) caused the biggest demonstrations since 1968. Add to that some doubts regarding his links to billionaire businesswoman Liliane Bettencourt (France's richest woman) and some African [[President for Life|dictators]], as well as numerous scandals involving members of his government (corruption, racism...), and it is needless to say a good part of French people grew really, ''really'' tired of him.
[[File:Hollande_6528.jpg|frame]]
* '''François Hollande''' (2012-current): The second left-wing President to be elected in the Fifth Republic, and the first non-married one. He has four children from his previous relation with Ségolène Royal (who was the socialist candidate for presidency in 2007) and his current mate is a political journalist, Valérie Trierweiler. First Secretary of the Socialist Party for eleven years between 1997 and 2008, he is also deputy of the National Assembly for Corrèze's 1st Constituency and President of the General Council of Corrèze <ref>Jacques Chirac carried on the very same functions in Corrèze. He and Hollande are good friends</ref>. His programme includes reflation and renegotiation of current European austerity policies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, [[Determinator|who will likely not give up]]. Time will tell. Other notable scheduled measures include : retirement age back to 60 for people who started to work early in their life (18 mostly), increased minimum wage, massive taxes on highest financial incomes, capping tax loopholes, reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity generation, legalization of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption...
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* '''Lutte Ouvrière''' (LO, Workers' Struggle): A (very) old trotskyst party which gives great importance to the defense of workers' rights and revolution. Formerly led by Arlette Laguiller, who was the first woman to run in a French presidential election. Which she did ''[[Determinator|6 successive times]]''.
** Their candidate for the 2012 presidential election was ''Nathalie Arthaud'' (economy and management teacher). She scored 0.5%.
* '''Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste''' (NPA, New Anticapitalist Party): [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. A refoundation of an old trotskyst party, led by young postman Olivier Besancenot until recently, composed of and led by mostly non-professional militants, and proud of this fact. They put an emphasis on ecological and social issues and like the previous party, they consider only social struggle can bring any change.
** Their candidate for 2012 was ''Philippe Poutou'' (worker in a car factory). He scored 1.5%.
* '''Front De Gauche''' (Left Front): A gathering of several radical leftwing parties engaged in 2009. It includes the French Communist Party (PCF) led by Pierre Laurent, which was nearly dead after its disastrous score in 2007 (2%); the Left Party (PG) founded in 2009 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon [[Defector From Decadence|who slammed the PS's door because of its more and more right-wing orientations]]; the Unitary Left (GU) led by Christian Picquet, a scission from the NPA (which refuses to join the Left Front); and four other small formations. The Left Front calls for a Constituency Assembly and a Sixth Republic. Their ideas are mostly similar to the NPA but they are less defiant towards change by institutions. In 2012 they were the emerging force of the election, and made an impression with ''massive'' open-air gatherings in Paris (120 000 people), Toulouse (70 000) and Marseille (100 000).
** Their candidate for 2012 was ''Jean-Luc Mélenchon'' (Member of European Parliament). He scored 11%.
* '''Europe-Écologie/Les Verts''' (EELV, Europe-Ecology/The Greens): A fusion between the old Green party and a more recent party led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a famous figure of the May 68 protests who is now more of a centrist. Currently, the party is led by Cecile Duflot. The political spectrum within the alliance is quite large, from de-growth activists to centrist liberals. Thus, the political line of the party is rather blurry.
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* '''Mouvement Démocrate''' (MoDem): the main centrist party, founded by the former lead of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), François Bayrou (deputy of Pyrénées-Atlantique). Economically mildly liberal, it created a surprise in 2007 with a score of 18,5%, [[One-Episode Wonder|but nothing ensued from it]]. Bayrou explicitly cites the American Democrats as an inspiration (hard to believe, we know, but the "neither socialist nor conservative" thing is actually kind of appealing to some in France), and actually tried to call his party ''Parti démocratique'', but learned that some dinky party nobody had ever heard of already had the name.
** Their candidate for 2012 was ''François Bayrou'' once more. He scored 9.5%.
* '''Debout la République''' (DLR, Stand Up Republic): Formerly a trend within the UMP, led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, it seceded and became an independent party in 2007, to represent the Gaullist right-wing. They defend a Keynesian capitalism against a deregulated, financial one, as well as a confederal model for the European Union. They also promote the Euro as a common reference currency while getting back national currencies in parallel.
** Their candidate for 2012 was ''Nicolas Dupont-Aignan'' (Deputy of the Essone department). He scored 2%.
* '''Union pour un Mouvement Populaire''' (UMP, Union for a Popular Movement): Founded in 2002 by Jacques Chirac, it's actually a gathering of several right-wing parties but is basically the [[Spiritual Successor]] of the former Rally For Republic (RPR). <ref>In the very beginning, UMP used to mean ''"Union pour la majorité presidentielle"'' or "union for a presidential majority". Richard Nixon, anyone? Better try not to think too hard about it, ''honni soit qui mal y pense''.</ref> Known for its neoliberal economic views and its harsh positions on immigration and insecurity (even more so since Nicolas Sarkozy took the lead and wanted to attract far-right voters). If the PS is the Democratic Party, they are the Republicans. Currently led by Jean-François Copé. [[Big Screwed-Up Family|But as with the PS…]]
** Their candidate for 2012 was the outgoing president, ''Nicolas Sarkozy''. He scored 27% in the first round but was beaten in the second round with 48,5%.
* '''Front National''' (FN): The main nationalist party, founded in the 70s by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Now led by his daughter Marine, and currently trying to [[Buffy-Speak|un-demonize itself]] by tackling finance and neoliberalism (which it still promoted back in 2007). Ironically, they are no more considered antisemitic but are now seen as anti-islamic instead… [[The Same but More|They are even harsher on insecurity and immigration than the UMP]], they're also against the Euro currency and promoted the return of death penalty in France. Notable for reaching the second turn in 2002, dovetailing the socialist candidate with 17%; if French people talk about "April 21", it refers to this. Yes, it was that big a shock. In 2012, Marine Le Pen managed to attract numerous votes among workers with her protectionist promises and capitalized heavily on anti-globalization and the hatred towards Nicolas Sarkozy (who attracted many FN voters in 2007 with his harsh positions on immigration and insecurity). The FN is now considered the third major French political party, to many people's dismay and fear.
** Their candidate for 2012 was ''Marine Le Pen'' (Member of European Parliament). She scored 18%.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Hollywood History]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/France]]
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