TITLE V. OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Article 72
Under reserve of the provisions of Article 51, the National Assembly alone votes the law and controls the governmental action.
The law establishes the rules concerning:
- the guarantees of the freedoms, [and] of the fundamental rights, the conditions within which they are exercised and the limitations that may be brought [portées] to them;
the civic rights, nationality, the status [état] and the capacity of persons, the matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts; the constraints [sujétions] imposed for the national defense on the citizens, on their persons and on their assets; the determination of the infractions, the penalties that are applicable to them, the penal procedure, amnesty, the creation and the composition of the orders of jurisdiction and the status of the Magistrates; the base [l’assiette], the rate, the modalities for recovering and controlling the taxes of any nature and the obligatory contributions; the electoral regime of the National Assembly, in that which is not indicated by the Constitution, the electoral regime of the elected Councils of the local collectivities; the fundamental guarantees granted to the civil and military functionaries of the State: the regime of emission of the currency the creation of categories of public establishments; expropriation, the nationalization or the privatization of enterprises; the creation of local collectivities.
The law determines the fundamental principles:
- of the general organization of the national defense and of the maintenance of the public order;
of the free administration of the local collectivities, of their competences, of teaching [enseignement] and of the scientific research; of the regime of property, of real rights and of civil and commercial obligations; of the right to work [droit du travail], of the syndical right and of the social protection; of the determination of the status of the diplomatic and consular corps; of the cultural development and of the protection of the patrimony and of the environment.
Article 73
The laws of finance [lois de finances] determine each year all [l’ensemble] of the resources and of the charges of the State, within the conditions and under the reserves specified by an organic law.
The law of regulation [loi de rèlement] declares the financial results of each civic year and approves the differences between the results and the projections [prévisions] of the law of finance of the preceding year.
It is voted on the foundation of the report of the Court of Accounts addressed to the National Assembly.
The plan laws [lois de plan] establish the multiannual orientations of the development of the Nation and the engagements of the State.
The program laws [lois de programme] determine by sector the objectives of the economic and social action of the State.
Article 74
The matters other than those that are of the domain of the Law have a regulatory character.
When the provisions of a law intervene in these other matters, they can be modified by decree, after the Constitutional Court has declared the regulatory character.
Article 75
The National Assembly votes the budget in equilibrium. It is referred to [the matter] of the bill of the Law of Finance by the Government no later than 15 October.
The Law of Finance is voted no later than 31 December.
If on the date of 31 December, the budget is not voted, the provisions of the bill of the Law of Finance may be brought into force by Ordinance.
The Government refers [the matter] for ratification to the National Assembly convoked in extraordinary session within a time period of fifteen days.
If the National Assembly has not voted the budget at the end of the extraordinary session, the budget is definitively established by Ordinance.
Article 76
The National Assembly has at its disposal sixty days at most to vote the Law of Finance.
If, for reasons of force majeure, the President of the Republic could not present the bill of the Law of Finance in a timely fashion, the ordinary session is followed immediately and of plain right, by an extraordinary session of which the duration is at most equal to the time necessary to cover the time period going from the day of the presentation of the bill of law to the sixtieth day following.
If, at the expiration of that time period, the bill of the law of finance has not been adopted, it can be brought into force by decree, taking into account the amendments voted by the National Assembly and accepted by the President of the Republic.
If, taking into account the procedure specified above, the law of finance of the year could not be brought into force before the beginning of the fiscal year [exercice], the President of the Republic demands of urgency of the National Assembly the authorization to collect taxes.
It decides within two days. The President of the Republic is authorized to renew [reconduir] by decree the budget of functioning of the preceding year.
Article 77
The Court of Accounts assures the control a posteriori of the execution of the laws of finance. It makes a report of it to the National Assembly.
Article 78
After its adoption by the National Assembly, the law is transmitted without delay to the President of the Republic.
The President of the Republic promulgates the law within ten days. The time period runs eight clear [francs] days after the transmission of the law adopted.
Article 79
Within the time period of ten days established for the promulgation, the President of the Republic may, by message, demand of the National Assembly a new deliberation, which cannot be refused.
The time period for promulgation is then suspended.
The law can be voted on second reading only if two-thirds of the members composing the National Assembly decide on its adoption. Its inscription in the agenda is of priority if the majority of the members composing the National Assembly so demands.
Article 80
Within the eight clear [francs] days that follow the adoption of a law, the President of the Republic, at least one-tenth of the Deputies or the Independent National Institution for Human Rights, may refer the Constitutional Court to [the matter] of a recourse looking to [visant] have it control the conformity of the law with the Constitution. The time period for promulgation is then suspended.
The Constitutional Court decides within the thirty days that follow its referral or if the President of the Republic so demands, within eight days. The Order [Arrêt] of the Constitutional Court is published in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].
A provision of a law declared non-conforming with the Constitution may not be promulgated or applied. The Order of the Constitutional Court imposes itself on all.
The time period for promulgation runs counting from the publication of the Order of the Constitutional Court which declares the law conforming to the Constitution.
Article 81
In the case of non-promulgation of a law by the President of the Republic in the time periods established, the law enters into force. The Constitutional Court orders its registration and its publication in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].
Article 82
The National Assembly may enable [habiliter] by a law, the President of the Republic to take the measures that are normally of the domain of the law, for a given time period and [with] the objectives that it specifies. Within the limits of time and of competence established by the enabling law [lois d’habilitation], the President of the Republic takes the Ordinances that enter into force on their publication, but become lapsed if a bill of a law of ratification is not presented before the National Assembly before the date established by the enabling law.
After this last date, they can only be modified by the law. They conserve nevertheless regulatory value until their ratification.
They may be amended at the moment of [lors] the vote on the law of ratification.
Article 83
The laws qualified as organic by this Constitution are voted and modified by a majority of two-thirds of the members composing the National Assembly.
They may not be promulgated if the Constitutional Court, obligatorily referred to [the matter] by the President of the Republic has not declared them conforming to the constitution.
The National Assembly may not enable the President of the Republic to take by way [voie] of Ordinance the measures arising within the organic law.
Article 84
The initiative of the laws belongs concurrently to the President of the Republic and to the Deputies of the National Assembly.
Article 85
The President of the Republic and the Deputies of the National Assembly have the right of amendment. The amendments of the President of the Republic are presented by the Prime Minister or a Minister.
The proposals and amendments formulated by the Deputies are only receivable if they arise within the domain of the law or if they enter within the competences delegated to the President of the Republic in application Article 82 during the duration of this delegation. They are not receivable when their adoption would have as consequence, either a diminution of the public resources, or the creation or the aggravation of a public charge, unless compensatory receipts would be specified.
Article 86
In the case of disagreement between the National Assembly and the President of the Republic, represented by a Minister, on the receivability of an amendment, the Constitutional Court decides within a time period of eight days, at the demand of one or the other.
Article 87
The National Assembly establishes its agenda. Nevertheless, the President of the Republic may demand the registration [inscription], by priority on the agenda, of a bill or of a proposal of law or of a declaration of general policy. This registration is of right.
The duration of the examination of the texts registered [inscrits] in the agenda by priority may not exceed half of the duration of the ordinary session.
Article 88
The Ministers may be heard at any moment by the National Assembly and by its commissions.
They may be assisted by the collaborators of their choice.
Article 89
The Government is required to furnish the National Assembly all the explanations that will be demanded of it concerning its administration [gestion] and about its activities.
The means of control of the National Assembly on the governmental action are the written and oral questions with or without debate to which the Prime Minister and the Ministers are required to answer. The answers given are not followed by a vote. They are published in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].
One sitting [séance] per week is reserved, during the course of each ordinary session, for the oral questions without debate.
The National Assembly may designate from within [en son sein] commissions of inquiry.
The Internal Regulations of the National Assembly determine the powers [pouvoirs] of these commissions.
They are created by the law, which defines for them [en] the composition, the functioning, the object and specifies the powers.
Article 90
The state of siege, as the state of urgency, is decreed by the President of the Republic, after the opinion [après avis] of the President of the National Assembly and of the President of the Constitutional Court. These opinions are published in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].
The President of the Republic may take, by ordinance, all measures necessary to the defense of the integrity of the territory and to the restoration or to the maintenance of the public order.
The National Assembly meets then of plain right, if it is not in session. It may not be dissolved.
The decree proclaiming the state of siege or the state of urgency ceases to be in force after twelve days, unless the National Assembly, referred to [the matter] by the President of the Republic, authorizes its [en] prorogation for a time period that it establishes. The Ordinances taken in application of the state of siege and of the state of urgency cease to be in force at the end of them.
Article 91
The state of war is declared by the President of the Republic, after having been authorized by the National Assembly by a majority of two-thirds of its members.
Article 92
In the case of persistent disagreement between the President of the Republic and the National Assembly on fundamental issues, the President of the Republic may, after consultation with the President of the National Assembly, pronounce the dissolution of it.
The dissolution may not be pronounced before the third year of the legislature and in the course of one same presidential mandate, more than one time.
New elections take place within the sixty days that follow the dissolution.
If these [elections] return to the National Assembly a majority of Deputies favorable to the position adopted by the former majority on the issue that provoked the dissolution, the President of the Republic must resign.
The National Assembly meets of plain right within the ten days that follow its election.
In the case of disagreement between the President of the Republic and the National Assembly before the third year of the legislature, the Constitutional Court may be referred to [the matter] by the President of the Republic or by the President of the National Assembly or by one-tenth of the Deputies.
The decision of the Constitutional Court imposes itself on the President of the Republic and on the National Assembly.
