Article 49 of the French Constitution is an article of the French Constitution, the fundamental law of the Fifth French Republic.Constitution française du 4 octobre 1958: texte intégral en vigueur. (2016). Publisher: France: Les Éditions des journaux officiels It sets out and structures the political responsibility of the government (the executive branch) towards the parliament (legislative branch). It is part of Title V: "On relations between the parliament and the government" (Articles 34 through 51), and with the intention of maintaining the stability of the French executive the section provides legislative alternatives to the parliament. It was written into the constitution to counter the perceived weaknessThe French Constitution of 1958: I. The Final Text and Its Prospects, Stanley H. Hoffmann, The American Political Science Review Vol. 53, No. 2 (Jun., 1959), pp. 332-357 (26 pages) Published By: American Political Science Association https://doi.org/10.2307/1952151 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1952151 p.332 of the Fourth Republic, such as "deadlock"France's article 49.3 a handy constitutional tool to bypass parliament, Alison Hird, RFE/RL, October 13, 2022 and successive rapid government takeovers, by giving the government the ability to pass bills without the approbation of the parliament, possible under Section 3 of Article 49.La réforme des retraites a été adoptée en France dans un climat délétère, Lucie Peytermann, Agence France-Presse, Le Devoir, 20 March 2023
The article, which comprises four paragraphs, was designed to prevent crises like those that occurred under the Fourth Republic. Its best-known provision, paragraph 3 (Article 49.3), allows the government to force passage of a law without a vote, unless the parliament passes a motion of no confidence.Toppling the government, early elections: Understanding the threats brandished by Macron and the opposition:President Macron is threatening to dissolve France's lower chamber of Parliament if it were to vote a motion of no confidence in the government, Romain Imbach, Le Monde, October 5, 2022 A motion of no confidence rarely passes, since it also entails the dissolution of the legislature pending new elections. Article 49 provides for:<Constitution of October 4, 1958, published by the French National Assembly an (commitment of responsibility) of the administration to a certain program or declaration of policy, initiated by the executive branch. This measure should not be confused with the "question of confidence", which no longer exists under the French Fifth Republic. a (vote of no confidence), initiated by the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly). administration option to force passage of a legislative text without a vote through an , unless the National Assembly is prepared to overturn it with a . an administration option to request approval of its policy by the French Senate, although the refusal of this approval would have consequences in the judicial branch
Article 49 paragraph 2 outlines a censure spontanée (spontaneous motion of no confidence), as opposed to the following paragraph 49.3, which outlines a motion of no confidence in some way "provoked" by the executive branch. Such a motion requires an absolute majority of members to vote for its adoption, and thus this provision changes the burden of proof and forces the Assemblée Nationale to reject the entire administration. The government cannot be overturned by counting the votes of undecided Assembly members who would simply abstain. This paragraph of Article 49 has only come into play once, in 1962 against Georges Pompidou, who then had to resign, but returned to power with newfound support after winning a decisive majority in the ensuing legislative elections.
Articles 50, 50.1 and 51 relate directly to Article 49, since Article 50 complements 49.2, Article 51 provides technical detail about the implementation of Article 49.3, and 50.1 gives the executive an option for a declaration with an ensuing debate.
Amendments of 1 March 2009 Article 49 of the constitution was amended by the constitutional legislation of 4 August 1995 and of 23 July 2008.
The original version of the article, when there were two legislative sessions a year, stated: "if a vote of no confidence is rejected, its supporters cannot introduce another in the same session." Since 1995 there has been a single (ordinary) session a year, apart from extraordinary sessions; a deputy may sign no more than three motions of censure in a single ordinary session and an additional such motion in an extraordinary session. In the original version, no limit was placed on the administration's use of engagement of responsibility. Since 2009, the prime minister can only use the administration engagement of responsibility for finance laws laws that finance social security no more than one other legislative project per session
Speeches
Michel Debré's speech before the Council of State On 27 August 1958 Michel Debré, then the Minister of Justice and one of the principal drafters of the new constitution, introduced the draft project in the General Assembly of the Council of State. Section 49 was mentioned in a brief passage that set out its spirit and motivations:
Charles de Gaulle's 31 January 1964 press conference In a press conference on 31 January 1964, General Charles de Gaulle returned to the topic of the functioning of institutions. His reading gave the French President a primacy well beyond the letter of the constitution, but often consistent with practice. He addressed, among other topics, the issue of the motion of no confidence:
March 2023
In March 2023 French president Emmanuel Macron used the provision to increase the age of retirement in France, provoking outrage and street demonstrations,Macron uses special powers to force through plan to raise pension age, Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, 16 Mar 2023 His administration had passed budget legislation in this way on ten previous occasions.France's Borne: resilient technocrat under pressure, Agence France-Presse, March 19 2023, France 24 A motion of no confidence also ensued, which the government narrowly survived.France pension reform: Macron's government survives no-confidence vote, Antoinette Radford, Jasmine Andersson BBC News 20 March 2023 At that point Article 49 had been used 89 times since 1958 by governments of all ideologies.Article 49.3 in France: A Political Tool, Jennifer Su, Columbia Undergraduate Law Review, January 9, 2023.
Vote of confidence (Article 49.1) The first subparagraph of Article 49 allows the prime minister to commit the responsibility of his government before the National Assembly. This is sometimes described as a motion of confidence. As provided in Article 50, a simple majority vote against the motion leads to the resignation of the administration. This contrasts with the two following paragraphs, which protect the executive to a greater extent. The meaning of 49.1 is sometimes imprecise, and therefore its interpretation is disputed, particularly as to whether the commitment of responsibility is optional or compulsory. In practice it is viewed as optional, and the president retains a clear supremacy. Thus, the motion of confidence is a weapon at the disposal only of the government. The political benefit its use can provide remains limited, however, even though the motion of confidence still remains an important parliamentary tradition that can sometimes give an administration some advantages in its relations with parliament, as well as with public opinion.
An administration which cannot rely on a majority can eschew the use of this measure without much inconvenience.
Disputed interpretation The word engager (to commit, or to "make [something] an issue") in Section 49.1 is particularly subject to controversy. It can be interpreted as a requirement, as in parliamentary régimes, or simply an ability, giving priority to the separation of powers and the prerogatives of the president. The Constitution of the Fourth Republic of France also stated that "the president of the Cabinet and the ministers cannot be nominated until after the president of the cabinet has been invested with the confidence of the assembly" (Article 45), which was also the practice of the Third Republic.
Nevertheless, the President of the Republic nominates the members of the administration (Article 8), without reference to a possible confirmation by the Assembly. Article 20 makes clear, by referring to articles 49 and 50, that the president is responsible to the parliament, but this is not conditioned on a "commitment of responsibility", and even when it is required, no deadline is given, which limits the requirement, which in reality comes down to at most a moral imperative. Michel Debré, before the Conseil d'État, also interpreted the clause as an optional, even before the constitution's adoption: "the weapon of the government and of it alone". But in his first speech of general policy, Debré said on this topic that "the text does not say explicitly that he must do so, but the spirit of the Constitution is clear."Michel Debré, general policy speech of January 16, 1959, cited in Maus, p. 222 This difficulty with regards to the semantic connotation of the indicative mood is not the only semantic issue affecting the Constitution; one could also bring up the debate of 1960 about Article 29, "Parliament shall convene in extraordinary session... at the request... of the majority of the members of the National Assembly, to consider a specific agenda."De Gaulle refused to summon an extraordinary session, considering that Article 29 gave him the option, and not the obligation, to do so. See his March 18, 1960, letter to President of the National Assembly Jacques Chaban-Delmas, quoted in Maus, pp. 176-177, as well as in Chevallier, Carcassonne, Duhamel, pp. 60-61. and the quarrel in 1986 about Article 13: "The president of the republic shall sign the ordinances..."In a period of "cohabitation" (when the president and the prime minister do not belong to the same party), François Mitterrand refused to sign certain ordinances (decrees provided for in Article 38 by which the prime minister, authorized by the parliament, may intervene in a domain normally relating to the law). In contrast to Article 10, which fixes a period of fifteen days for the promulgation of laws, unanimously considered as an obligation of the president, Article 13 does not set a deadline. See the televised interview of the president on July 14, 1986, and the prime minister's televised address on July 16, 1986, quoted in Maus, pp. 191-193, as well as in Chevallier, Carcassonne, Duhamel, pp. 335- 337.