President of France


The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic or president of the Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the position is the highest office in France. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.
The president of France is the Ex officio member co-prince of Andorra, grand master of the Legion of Honour and of the National Order of Merit, and protector of the Institut de France in Paris. The officeholder is also honorary proto-canon of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, although some have rejected the title in the past.
The current president is Emmanuel Macron, who succeeded François Hollande on 14 May 2017 following the 2017 presidential election, and was inaugurated for a second term on 7 May 2022 following the 2022 presidential election.

History

The presidency of France was first publicly proposed during the July Revolution of 1830, when it was offered to the Marquis de Lafayette. He demurred in favour of Prince Louis Phillipe, who became King of the French.
Eighteen years later, during the opening phases of the Second Republic, the title was created for a popularly elected head of state, the first of whom was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Emperor Napoleon. Bonaparte served as president until he staged a self-coup against the republic, proclaiming himself Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.
Under the Third Republic the president was at first quite powerful, mainly because the royalist party was strong when the constitutional laws of 1875 were established, and it was hoped that a member of one of the two branches of the royal family would be able to serve as president and turn France into a constitutional monarchy. However, the next legislature was dominated by Republicans, and after President Patrice de MacMahon had unsuccessfully tried to obtain a new royalist majority by dissolving the Chambre des Députés, his successor Jules Grévy promised in 1879 that he would not use his presidential power of dissolution, and therefore lost his control over the legislature, effectively creating a parliamentary system that would be maintained for 80 years until the accession of Charles de Gaulle as president in 1959.
Indeed, when the Fourth Republic was created, after the Second World War, it was a parliamentary system, in which the office of President of the Republic was a largely ceremonial one.
The Constitution of the Fifth Republic, adopted in 1958, greatly increased the president's powers. A 1962 referendum changed the constitution, so that the president would be directly elected by universal suffrage and not by the electoral college established in 1958. In 2000, a referendum shortened the presidential term from seven years to five years. A maximum of two consecutive terms was imposed after a 2008 constitutional reform.

Election

Term limits

Since the 1962 presidential referendum, the president has been directly elected by universal suffrage; previously, an electoral college decided the head of state. The length of the presidential term was reduced from seven years to five years following a 2000 referendum; the first election for a shorter term was held in 2002. Then-president Jacques Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, and would have been able to run in 2007 had he chosen to, given the lack of term limits.
Following a further change, the constitutional law of 2008 on the modernization of the institutions of the Fifth Republic, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac were previously the only presidents to date who have served a full two terms. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron is the fourth president to win re-election, having done so in 2022.

Electoral process

French presidential elections are conducted using run-off voting, which ensures that the elected president always obtains a majority: if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting, the two highest-scoring candidates arrive at a run-off. After a new president is elected, they go through a solemn investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs.
In order to be admitted as an official candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected local officials, mostly mayors. These officials must be from at least 30 departments of France or overseas collectivities, and no more than 10% of them should be from the same département or collectivity. Furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate.
There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors. Spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending and government public financing of 50% of spending if the candidate scores more than 5%. If the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden, but official time is given to candidates on public TV. An independent agency regulates election and party financing.

Powers

The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system. Unlike most other European heads of state, the French president is quite powerful. Although the Prime Minister of France, through their government as well as Parliament, oversees much of the nation's actual day-to-day domestic affairs, the French president wields significant influence and authority, especially in the fields of national security and foreign policy. The president's greatest power is the ability to choose the prime minister. However, since it is the French National Assembly that has the sole power to dismiss the prime minister's government, the president is forced to name a prime minister who can command the support of a majority in the assembly. Since 2002, the legislative elections are held a few weeks after the presidential; a majority supporting the president's party or at the very least not opposing the president's choice is therefore very likely to be obtained. The president also has the duty of arbitrating the functioning of governmental authorities for efficient service, as the head of state of France.
  • When a majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, this leads to political cohabitation. In that case, the President's power is diminished, since much of the de facto power relies on a supportive prime minister and National Assembly, and is not directly attributed to the post of president.
  • When the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the president can take a more active role and may further influence government policy. The prime minister is then a more personal choice of the president, and can be easily replaced if the administration becomes unpopular. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, and François Hollande.
Since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both five years, and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower. Among the powers of the president:
  • The president promulgates laws.
  • * The president has a suspensive veto: when presented with a law, they can request another reading of it by the Parliament, but only once per law.
  • * The president may also refer the law for review to the Constitutional Council prior to promulgation.
  • The president may dissolve the French National Assembly.
  • The president may refer treaties or certain types of laws to popular referendum, within certain conditions.
  • The president is the Chief of the Armed Forces.
  • The president may order the use of nuclear weapons.
  • The president names the prime minister. In theory, they cannot directly dismiss them, but at least a few recent PMs are known to have given an undated letter of resignation for themselves to the president upon taking office, and the president generally has some influence over the PM. The president also names and dismisses the other ministers, with the advice of the prime minister.
  • The president names most officials.
  • The president names certain members of the Constitutional Council.
  • The president receives foreign ambassadors.
  • The president may grant a pardon to convicted criminals; the president can also lessen or suppress criminal sentences. This was of crucial importance when France still operated the death penalty: criminals sentenced to death would generally request that the president commute their sentence to life imprisonment.
All decisions of the president must be countersigned by the prime minister, except dissolving the National Assembly, choice of prime minister, and other dispositions referred to in Article 19.

Detailed constitutional powers

The constitutional attributions of the president are defined in Title II of the Constitution of France.
Article 5: The president of the republic shall see that the Constitution is observed. He shall ensure, by his arbitration, the proper functioning of the public authorities and the continuity of the State. He shall be the guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and observance of treaties.
Article 8: The president of the republic shall appoint the prime minister. He shall terminate the appointment of the prime minister when the latter tenders the resignation of the Government. On the proposal of the prime minister, he shall appoint the other members of the Government and terminate their appointments.
Article 9: The president of the republic shall preside over the Council of Ministers.
Article 10: The president of the republic shall promulgate acts of parliament within fifteen days following the final adoption of an act and its transmission to the Government. He may, before the expiry of this time limit, ask Parliament to reconsider the act or sections of the Act. Reconsideration shall not be refused. While the President has to sign all acts adopted by parliament into law, he cannot refuse to do so and exercise a kind of right of veto; his only power in that matter is to ask for a single reconsideration of the law by parliament and this power is subject to countersigning by the Prime minister.
Article 11: The president could submit laws to the people in a referendum with advice and consent of the cabinet.
Article 12: The president of the republic may, after consulting the prime minister and the presidents of the assemblies, declare the National Assembly dissolved. A general election shall take place not less than twenty days and not more than forty days after the dissolution. The National Assembly shall convene as of right on the second Thursday following its election. Should it so convene outside the period prescribed for the ordinary session, a session shall be called by right for a fifteen-day period. No further dissolution shall take place within a year following this election.
Article 13: The president of the republic shall sign the ordinances and decrees deliberated upon in the Council of Ministers. He shall make appointments to the civil and military posts of the State.
Article 14: The president of the republic shall accredit ambassadors and envoys extraordinary to foreign powers; foreign ambassadors and envoys extraordinary shall be accredited to him.
Article 15: The president of the republic shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He shall preside over the higher national defence councils and committees.
Article 16: Where the institutions of the republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory or the fulfilment of its international commitments are under serious and immediate threat, and where the proper functioning of the constitutional public authorities is interrupted, the president of the republic shall take the measures required by these circumstances, after formally consulting the prime minister, the presidents of the assemblies and the Constitutional Council. He shall inform the nation of these measures in a message. The measures must stem from the desire to provide the constitutional public authorities, in the shortest possible time, with the means to carry out their duties. The Constitutional Council shall be consulted with regard to such measures. Parliament shall convene as of right. The National Assembly shall not be dissolved during the exercise of the emergency powers.
Article 16, allowing the president a limited form of rule by decree for a limited period of time in exceptional circumstance, has been used only once, by Charles de Gaulle during the Algerian War, from 23 April to 29 September 1961.
Article 17: The president of the republic has the right to grant pardon.
Article 18: The president of the republic shall communicate with the two assemblies of Parliament by means of messages, which he shall cause to be read and which shall not be the occasion for any debate. He can also give an address in front of the Congress of France in Versailles. Outside sessions, Parliament shall be convened especially for this purpose.
Article 19: Acts of the president of the republic, other than those provided for under articles 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 54, 56 and 61, shall be countersigned by the prime minister and, where required, by the appropriate ministers.