La Ve Republic is in crisis, and those with the power and opportunity to resolve this crisis are looking elsewhere. For the first time in the history of this Republic, a newly elected president has been deprived of a majority in the National Assembly. However, it is precisely to avoid this situation that the five-year term was instituted in 2000. France was then in cohabitation. In 1997, two years after his election as president, the French sent Jacques Chirac a left-wing majority in the National Assembly. The executive power was no longer at the Elysée but at Matignon, with Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. However, power was shared: the president was also responsible for foreign policy and defence, the government was a team of plural personalities controlled by parliament.
Cohabitation was popular among the French. The gap between the duration of the mandate of the deputies – five years – and that of the president – seven years – forced the latter to an “intermediate” legislative election. It was the moment – the only one – when the political responsibility of the president was submitted to the popular verdict. The French had found a way to control the president and counterbalance his powers. A presidential term longer than that of deputies also allowed the Head of State to rise above the strict stakes of partisan and personal power, to better embody the national interest, the integrity of the State and the Republican values.
In 2000, our then leaders sold the French on the fact that it was more democratic to elect the president every five years rather than every seven years. They deceived them. The legislative election in the wake of the presidential election, and for an identical duration of five years, aimed only to guarantee undivided power. From then on, the president, endowed with a parliamentary majority, became direct head of government and of the deputies, combining the functions of president and prime minister then, with Emmanuel Macron, of all the ministers and secretaries of state combined.
Separating powers
This regime of accumulation and confusion of powers, concentrated to the extreme at the Elysée, the French wanted to put an end to it during the legislative elections of 2022. Because, creating embolism in the State, lowering all the powers public, it suffocates democracy. But have the new deputies understood the message of voters? As drug addicts to the regime of personal power, they seem preoccupied only with preparing its next return, either around Emmanuel Macron after a successful dissolution, or around another president after a failed dissolution, or in 2027 at the next presidential election. However, yesterday as today, the will of the French is clear: it is necessary to rebalance and separate the powers.
You have 43.54% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.