The Constitution underwent several evolutions which gave the president under the Fifth Republic a primordial place in the French institutional functioning, whereas he was practically only a moral authority under the Third and Fourth Republics. A look back at the evolution of the role of the head of state throughout republican history, at a time when France is preparing to choose a new president.
The story begins after the Revolution of 1789, with the First Republic (between September 1792 and May 1804), officially named the French Republic. On September 21, 1792, the deputies of the Convention, meeting for the first time, unanimously decided to abolish the monarchy in France and thus announced a new era of governance. But the Republic was never officially proclaimed. On September 22, 1792, the decision was taken to date the acts of Year I of the Republic and on September 25, 1792, the Republic was declared one and indivisible.
The First Republic will go through three forms of government: the National Convention (1792-1794), the Directory (1795-1799) founded by the Constitution of Year III, and the Consulate (1799-1804) resulting from the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire which ends with the coronation of Napoleon 1st and the establishment of the First Empire. In the Constitution of the year XII, it is specified that the government of the Republic is entrusted to a hereditary emperor. The use of the name Republic then fell into disuse.
2nd and 3rd Republic
The Second Republic is the political regime in France from February 24, 1848, the date of the provisional proclamation of the Republic in Paris, until December 2, 1851, during the coup d’etat of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. It follows the July Monarchy and is replaced by the Second Empire. This Second Republic, original in its brevity and in the fact that it was the last regime to have been instituted following a revolution, applied universal (male) suffrage for the first time in France and definitively abolished slavery. in the French colonies.
Under the Second Republic, the president was elected by direct universal suffrage and had very significant powers, even if the Constitution did not regulate the terms of his powers. He could say that he was responsible to the people and that was enough to give him certain responsibilities. ” Direct universal suffrage and responsibilities favored the election of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte… and the shift to the Empire. And that left some traces when we come to the Third Republic which would perhaps be the most immediate story in the evolution of the powers of the President of the Republic until today. », summarizes constitutional law professor Véronique Champeil-Desplats who continues: “ Under the Third Republic, the role of the president is primarily understood by the climate of expectation. In fact, after the fall of the Second Empire, we still did not really know if we were going to opt for the Republic or if we were going to return to the monarchy. »
The laws that framed power until 1875 were meant to be provisional, and the three constitutional laws of 1875, which defined the framework of the Third Republic, were developed to wait, to see if we were heading towards the monarchy or the Republic. Reasons why the status of the president is then perceived as that of a kind of republican monarch. He is named President of the Republic, but we find all the powers of constitutional monarchies. The president is then powerful: he can convene, adjourn, dissolve the chambers, he has the initiative of laws, the regulatory power, he can request a new deliberation, he has the right of pardon…
But things will change. The great turning point of the Third Republic was the crisis of May 16, 1877 during the direct confrontation between President Mac Mahon, a monarchist, and the Republican majority in the Assembly and the Senate. This institutional crisis will lead to the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, but a Republican majority is re-elected. Mac Mahon takes note of the new majority and submits. Two years later, the Republicans win the Senate and Mac Mahon is, this time, forced to resign, and resigns. What was a major right of the President of the Republic, the right of dissolution and the possibility of intervening institutionally in political life, will disappear. Following this, the president will only be a moral authority. ” A chrysanthemum inaugurator », we will say to make fun of the now very limited powers of the president.
Fourth Republic
At the end of the Second World War, a referendum was proposed to the French. In essence, two questions are asked: Do you approve of the provisional government proposed to you? ? ” and ” Do you approve of the Assembly being a Constituent Assembly ? “This consultation will be at the origin of a Fourth Republic which, like the Third Republic, will only give the president moral authority.
It’s this “ weakness of the president under the Third Republic and his inability to act against Germany, which General de Gaulle pointed out at the end of the war. France is, at this time in its history, in full reflection on its future and a Constituent Assembly has been elected. But this Assembly is mainly on the left and that displeases the general who is going to make a kind of counter-proposal during his famous Bayeux speech delivered on June 16, 1946. While the Assembly is moving towards a strengthening of its power and a weakening of that of the executive, De Gaulle advocates on the contrary a strong presidency, which can govern even if it does not have a majority in the Assembly. , while wanting to maintain a direct link with the people, independently of Parliament. But it will be necessary to wait until 1958 for his wish to come true.
Fifth Republic
In the period from April to May 1958, a succession of government resignations and outvoting on the question of the Algerian war created deadlocks and crises. René Coty, president at the time, sought a way out of the crisis and called on General de Gaulle, who had an image of neutrality on the Algerian question shared equally by supporters of French Algeria and by those who favored independence. The general agrees to be the providential man, the President of the Council, but on the condition of changing the Constitution. The idea is accepted, he is invested by the National Assembly and he asks that on June 1, 1958 be conferred on him the power to draw up a new Constitution.
The Constitution of October 4, 1958 brings France back into a Fifth Republic. But it is still a college of elected officials, notables, who elect the president. De Gaulle becomes the first Head of State of this Fifth Republic, with powers reinforced by the new Constitution. The president can, for example, implement powers without having the approval of the government, such as dissolution, the appointment of the Prime Minister, crisis powers (Article 16 of the Constitution), recourse to referendum… but another important step will consolidate this presidential power. As Véronique Champeil-Desplats points out, following the attempted assassination in Petit-Clamart, the general wondered about the conditions for the election of the Head of State. ” After the Petit-Clamart attack, General de Gaulle said to himself that his successors would probably not have his legitimacy, and since the powers conferred by the constitutional text are important, the President of the Republic must have legitimacy. personal, clean and direct…and he will revise the Constitution and establish direct universal suffrage ». The direct election of the president by the people will reinforce his power by giving him a primordial place in the functioning of French institutions.
This concentration of power was then reaffirmed in many ways by the various presidents who succeeded each other under the Fifth Republic. Apart from periods of “cohabitation”, where a President of the Republic and a political majority opposed to him in the National Assembly coexist (as was the case in 1986-1988, 1993-1995 and 1997-2002); or the reduction of the duration of the presidential term from 7 years to 5 years, following a referendum (September 24, 2000), the president has become increasingly powerful. It is the highest administrative authority. Through its arbitration, it monitors compliance with the Constitution, and ensures the normal functioning of public powers and the continuity of the State (Article 5 of the Constitution). He is the head of the armed forces, his role in defense is predominant and he has authority over the nuclear deterrent force (article 15), over diplomacy (article 14) and has crisis powers (article 16) intended to safeguard democracy and restore the functioning of public authorities as soon as possible.
Towards a Sixth Republic?
This hyper-concentration of presidential power is for some a sign of the poor health of democracy. At a time when France is choosing a new president, several political movements are expressing the desire for a constitutional overhaul, which would better distribute powers in a Sixth Republic.
Several projects exist. For example, the Sixth Republic advocated by the socialist Arnaud Montebourg is not that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of rebellious France in the presidential election of 2017. But they share the same observation as explained by Paul Allies, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Montpellier and president of the Convention for the Sixth Republic. ” We are in a cycle, which has not been interrupted, of endless strengthening of the power of the President of the Republic, which can be described as presidentialism, but not at all a presidential or semi-presidential regime, as some have qualified or still qualify him. We are not at all in an American-style system where counter-powers considerably limit presidential power, not to mention federalism where the states of the federation are so many counterweights to that of Washington. So we have in France an opposite system where we never stop seeing powers being concentrated and centralized in the very person of the president. »
Others, on the contrary, believe that the Fifth Republic has held firm and that a new fundamental law is not necessary, even if it can continue to be tweaked over time. For these adversaries of a Sixth Republic, the current Constitution remains in particular a guarantee of political stability in uncertain times. And in any case, neither of the two French presidential finalists – Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron – is in favor of a change in the Constitution.
An article published by Arnaud Jouve on April 28, 2017.
