TITLE VII. OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE POWER AND THE LEGISLATIVE POWER
Article 67
The law is voted by the National Assembly.
The law establishes the rules concerning:
- the civil rights and the fundamental guarantees granted to the citizens for the exercise of the public freedoms, the constraints [sujétions] imposed by the National Defense on citizens on their persons and on their assets;
the status of the opposition; nationality, the state and the capacity of persons, the matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts; the determination of the crimes and misdemeanors as well as the penalties which are applicable to them, the criminal procedure, amnesty, the creation of new orders of jurisdiction and the status of the magistrates; the basis [assiette], the tax and the modalities of collecting taxes of all natures, the regime of the issuance of the currency; the electoral regime of the National Assembly and of the local assemblies; the fundamental guarantees granted to the civil and military functionaries of the State; the nationalization of enterprises and the transfers of property of enterprises of the public sector to the private sector.
The law determines the fundamental principles:
- of the general organization of the National Defense;
of the free administration of the local collectivities, of their competences and of their resources; of teaching; of the regime of property, of real rights and of civil and commercial obligations, of the right to work, of the syndical right and of social security; the regime of remuneration of the agents of the State.
The laws of finance determine the resources and the expenditures of the State within the conditions and under the reserves specified by an organic law. The creations and transformations of public employments [emplois] may only be undertaken by the laws of finance.
The program laws determine the objectives of the economic and social action of the State. The plan is approved by the law.
The provisions of this Article may be made precise and completed by an organic law.
Article 68
The National Assembly votes the bills of laws of finance within the conditions provided for by an organic law.
The bill of the law of finance of the year, which includes notably the budget, is deposited with the Bureau of the National Assembly, at the latest [on] the day of the opening of the sole ordinary session.
The National Assembly [has] at its disposal sixty days at the most to vote the bills of the laws of finance.
If, for reason of a case of force majeure, the President of the Republic has not deposited the bill of the law of finance of the year in a timely fashion so that the National Assembly may dispose concerning it, before the end of the session established, [in] the time period provided for in the previous paragraph, the session is immediately and of plain right prolonged until the adoption of the law of finance.
If the bill of law of finance has not been voted definitively at the expiration of the time period of sixty days provided for above, it is 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 provided for above, the law of finance of the year has not been brought into force before the debut of the fiscal year [année financière], the President of the Republic is authorized to renew [reconduire] by decree, the services voted.
The Court of Accounts assists the President of the Republic, the Government and the National Assembly in the control of the execution of the laws of finance.
Article 69
The state of siege, as the state of urgency, is decreed by the President of the Republic. The National Assembly then meets of plain right, if it is not in session.
The decree proclaiming a 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, has authorized the continuation of it.
The modalities of application of the state of siege and of the state of urgency are determined by the law.
Article 70
The declaration of war is authorized by the National Assembly.
The rights and duties of the citizens, during war or in case of invasion or of attack of the national territory by forces from the exterior, are made the object of an organic law.
Article 71
After its adoption by the National Assembly with the absolute majority of the suffrage expressed, the law is transmitted without delay to the President of the Republic for promulgation.
Article 72
The President of the Republic promulgates the law definitely adopted within the eight full [franc] days which follow the expiration of the time periods of recourse specified in Article 74.
The time period of promulgation is reduced by half in case of urgency declared by the National Assembly.
Article 73
Within the time period established for promulgation, the President of the Republic can, by a substantiated message, demand of the National Assembly a new deliberation which may not be refused. The law may only be voted in second reading if three-fifths of the members composing the National Assembly pronounce themselves in favor of it.
Article 74
The Constitutional Council may be referred to [a matter] by a recourse seeking to have a law declared unconstitutional:
- by the President of the Republic[,] within the six full days which follow the transmission made to him of the law definitely adopted,
by a number of Deputies at least equal to one-tenth of the members of the National Assembly, within the six full days which follow its definitive adoption.
Article 75
The time period of the promulgation is suspended until the outcome [issue] of the second deliberation of the National Assembly or of the decision of the Constitutional Council declaring the law conforming to the Constitution.
In every case, at the expiration of the constitutional time periods, the promulgation is of right; it is provided by the President of the National Assembly.
Article 76
Matters which are not of the legislative domain by virtue of this Constitution have a regulatory character.
The texts of legislative form intervening in these matters may be modified by decree if the Constitutional Council, at the demand of the President of the Republic or of the Prime Minister, has declared that they have a regulatory character by virtue of the preceding paragraph.
Article 77
The National Assembly can enable[,] by a law, the President of the Republic to take the measures which are normally of the domain of the law.
Within the limits of time and of competence established by the enabling law, the President of the Republic takes the ordinances which enter in force on their publication[,] but become lapsed if the bill of law of ratification is not deposited with the Bureau of the National Assembly before the date established by the enabling law. The National Assembly can amend them on the occasion of the vote of the law of ratification.
Article 78
The laws qualified [as] organic by the Constitution are voted and modified with the absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly
They may not be promulgated if the Constitutional Council, obligatorily referred [to the matter] by the President of the Republic, does not declare them [as] conforming to the Constitution.
Articles 65 and 77 are not applicable to organic laws.
Article 79
The President of the Republic communicates with the National Assembly by messages which he delivers [prononce] or which he has read and which do not give rise to any debate.
Article 80
The initiative of the laws belongs concurrently to the President of the Republic, to the Prime Minister and to the Deputies.
Article 81
The Prime Minister and the other members of the Government may be heard at any moment by the National Assembly and its commissions. They may be assisted by collaborators.
The permanent commissions of the National Assembly may hear the directors general of the public establishments, of the national societies and of the agencies of execution.
These hearings and means of control are exercised within the conditions determined by the organic law concerning [the] Internal Regulations of the National Assembly.
Article 82
The President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Deputies have the right of amendment. The amendments of the President of the Republic are presented by the Prime Minister and the other members of the Government.
The proposals and amendments formulated by the Deputies are not receivable when their adoption would have as a consequence, either a diminution of public resources, or the creation or aggravation of a public expenditure, unless these proposals or amendments have been matched by proposals of compensatory receipts.
However, no additional article or amendment to a bill of law of finance may be proposed by the National Assembly, unless it tends to suppress or to effectively redress an expense, to create or to increase [accroître] a receipt.
If the Government demands it, the National Assembly referred to [the matter] pronounces by a sole vote on all or part of the text under discussion retaining in it only the amendments proposed or accepted by the Government.
Article 83
If it appears, in the course of the legislative procedure, that a proposal or amendment is not of the domain of the law, the Prime Minister and the other members of the Government may oppose the receivability.
In the case of disagreement, the Constitutional Council, at the demand of the President of the Republic, of the National Assembly or of the Prime Minister, decides within eight days.
Article 84
The inscription, by priority, on the agenda of the National Assembly of a bill or of a proposal of law or of a declaration of general policy, is of right if the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister makes the demand for it.
Article 85
The Deputies may pose, to the Prime Minister and to the other members of the Government, who are held to respond to them, written questions.
The Deputies may pose to the Prime Minister and to the other members of the Government who are held to respond to them, oral questions and questions concerning current matters [questions d’actualité]. The questions and the responses which are made to them are not followed by [a] vote.
The Prime Minister and the other members of the Government present themselves to the National Assembly, according to a periodicity to be established with the agreement of the parties, to respond to the questions concerning current matters of the Deputies.
The National Assembly can designate, from within it, commissions of inquiry.
The law determines the conditions of organization and of functioning as well as the powers of the commissions of inquiry.
Article 86
The Prime Minister can, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, decide to pose the question of confidence on a program or a declaration of general policy. The vote on the question of confidence may only intervene two full days after it has been posed.
Confidence is refused in public ballot with the absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly. The refusal of confidence results in the collective resignation of the Government.
The National Assembly may provoke the resignation of the Government by the vote of a motion of censure.
The motion of censure must, on penalty of irreceivability, be accompanied by the signatures of one-tenth (1/10) of the members composing the National Assembly. The vote of the motion of censure may only intervene two full days after its deposit with the Bureau of the National Assembly.
The motion of censure is voted in public ballot, by the absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly; only the votes favorable to the motion of censure are counted. If the motion of censure is adopted, the Prime Minister immediately remits the resignation of the Government to the President of the Republic. A new motion of censure may not be presented in the course of the same session.
The Prime Minister can, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, engage the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly on the vote of a bill of the law of finance. In this case, the bill is considered as adopted, unless if a motion of censure, deposited within the twenty-four hours which follow, is voted within the conditions of the preceding paragraph. The Prime Minister can, also, resort to this procedure for one other bill or proposal of law per session.
Article 87
The President of the Republic can, after receiving the opinion of the Prime Minister and that of the President of the National Assembly, pronounce, by decree, the dissolution of the National Assembly.
However, the dissolution may not intervene during the first two years of legislature.
The decree of dissolution establishes the date of the ballot for the election of the Deputies. The ballot takes place sixty days at least and ninety days at most after the date of the publication of said decree.
The dissolved National Assembly may not meet. However, the mandate of the Deputies only expires on the date of the proclamation of the election of the members of the new National Assembly.
