French National Assembly

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This article concerns the modern National Assembly. For information about the body formed in the French Revolution, see National Assembly (French Revolution).

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The French National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale) is one of the two houses of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The other is the French Senate ("Sénat").

The National Assembly consists of 577 members known as députés (deputies), each elected by a single-member constituency. French deputies are elected in each constituency through a two rounds system. It is presided over by a president (currently Jean-Louis Debré), normally from the largest party represented, assisted by vice-presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The term of the National Assembly is five years; however, the President of France may dissolve the Assembly (by i.e.: calling a new election), unless he dissolved it in the preceding year.

The official seat of the National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon on the banks of the river Seine. It is guarded by Republican Guards; huissiers oversee the operations inside the meeting amphitheater and in other facilities.

Image:Martine Billard dsc07948.jpg Following a tradition started by the first French National Assembly during the French revolution, the "left-wing" parties sit to the left as seen from the president's seat, and the "right-wing" parties sit to the right, and the seating arrangement thus directly indicates the political spectrum as represented in the Assembly.

1 Relationships with the executive
2 Current membership
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Relationships with the executive

The President of the Republic can decide to dissolve the National Assembly and call for new legislative elections. This is meant as a way to resolve stalemates where the Assembly cannot decide on a clear political direction. This possibility is seldom exercised. The last dissolution was by Jacques Chirac in 1997, following from the lack of popularity of prime minister Alain Juppé; however, the plan backfired, and the newly elected majority was opposed to Chirac.

The National Assembly can overthrow the executive government (that is, the Prime Minister and other ministers) by voting a motion of censure. For this reason, the prime minister and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president and assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as cohabitation. While motions of censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, they are purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the government is never overthrown by the Assembly. There has historically been a single case of a successful motion of censure: on October 5, 1962, against the government of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou.

The Government (the Prime Minister and the Minister of relationships with Parliament) sets the priority agenda for the Assembly's sessions, except for a single day each month. In practice, given the number of priority items, it means that the schedule of the Assembly is almost entirely set by the executive; bills generally only have a chance to be examined if proposed or supported by the executive.

[edit] Current membership

The last legislative elections, held in June 2002 resulted in the following distribution of seats:

[discuss] – [edit]
**Summary of the 9 and 16 June 2002 **French National Assembly** election results**
Parties and coalitions		Abbr.	Votes (1st round)	% (1st round)	Seats (2nd round)
	Union for the presidential majority (Union pour la majorite presidentielle)	UMP	8 408 023	33.3	357
	Union for French Democracy (Union pour la démocracie française)	UDF	1 226 462	4.9	29
	Miscellaneous Right-wing	DVD	921 973	3.7	8
	Movement for France (Mouvement pour la France)	MPF	202 831	0.8	1
	Liberal Democracy (Démocratie libérale)	DL	104 767	0.4	2
	Rally for France (Rassemblement pour la France)	RPF	94 222	0.4	2
	Total "Presidential Majority" (Right)		10 958 278	43.4	399
	Socialist Party (Parti socialiste)	PS	6 086 599	24.1	141
	French Communist Party (Parti communiste français)	PCF	1 216 178	4.8	21
	The Greens (Les Verts)		1 138 222	4.5	3
	Left Radical Party (Parti radical de gauche)	PRG	388 891	1.5	7
	Miscellaneous Left-wing	DVG	275 533	1.1	6
	Total "United Left"		9 105 443	36.1	178
	National Front (Front national)	FN	2 862 960	11.3	-
	Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions (Chasse, pêche, nature, traditions)	CPNT	422 448	1.7	-
	Revolutionary Communist League (Ligue communiste révolutionnaire)	LCR	320 467	1.3	-
	Workers' Struggle (Lutte ouvrière)	LO	301 984	1.2	-
	Republican Pole (Pôle républicain)		299 897	1.2	-
	Other Ecologists		295 899	1.2	-
	National Republican Movement (Mouvement national républicain)	MNR	276 376	1.1	-
	Miscellaneous		194 946	0.8	-
	Other Far-Left		81 558	0.3	-
	Regionalists		66 240	0.3	-
	Other Far-right		59 549	0.2	-
	Total		25 252 045	100	577
Abstention: 35.6% (1st round), 39.6% (2nd round)