How political “cohabitation” works in France
UNDER THE modern French republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, elections to the country’s presidency and parliament take place at different votes. Since the constitution was updated in 2000 to shorten the presidential term from seven years to five, the parliamentary election has been held a couple of months after the presidential poll. From 2002 to 2022, at five successive legislative elections, this delivered a government of the same political stripe as the president. France’s upcoming parliamentary election on June 30th and July 7th, however, may well lead to another spell of what is known as “cohabitation”. This could be under Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN), or the newly formed hard-left New Popular Front. What is cohabitation, and how does it work?
France has undergone three periods of cohabitation since 1958, each time between the Socialists and the Gaullist right: François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac (1986-88), Mitterrand and Edouard Balladur (1993-95), and Chirac and Lionel Jospin (1997-2002). In theory the constitution is clear about the separation of roles. The government “determines and conducts” national policy. The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and “guarantor of national independence”, and negotiates international affairs. These days, the president also attends summits of the European Council, which bring together heads of the 27 European Union countries.
In reality, however, matters are more blurred. Regular EU ministerial meetings determine union-wide policy, on matters from trade to immigration. France is represented at such meetings by the government, not the president, providing it with an opportunity to block or delay decisions not to its liking. A policy backed by the president—in the case of the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, new joint EU defence-related borrowing, for instance—would therefore be vulnerable at the very least to obstruction at ministerial level. Moreover, a presidential foreign-policy decision with budgetary implications, such as an increase in military aid to Ukraine, would require securing the means to do so from the government.
On domestic affairs, the French constitution is fairly clear that the government is in charge, even though the president chairs the weekly cabinet meetings. When the centre-right Chirac was president, for example, he had little choice but to accept the introduction by his Socialist government of the 35-hour maximum working week, a measure he abhorred. The president’s domestic power resides chiefly in his power to delay legislation, by referring it to the Constitutional Council or sending it back to parliament for further examination, and, no sooner than a year after previously doing so, to dissolve the National Assembly again.
The president also has the power to name the prime minister. In the face of potential cohabitation, and in particular a hung parliament, the constitution lays out no criteria by which to do this. The president could nominate a technocrat or politician, and one in command of a parliamentary majority, or not. For the RN, Ms Le Pen says she would put forward her 28-year-old party head, Jordan Bardella (pictured). For the hard-left alliance, no single candidate has yet emerged. Whoever is asked to form a government is not then constitutionally obliged to secure parliamentary approval. Were a minority government then to try to force through legislation—or the budget—without a direct parliamentary vote under article 49.3 of the constitution, it would be vulnerable to the tabling of a no-confidence vote. Then, an absolute majority of all elected deputies would bring down the government. The same rules would apply to a no-confidence motion tabled independently by any deputy who secures the backing of a tenth of elected members. In other words, cohabitation always heralds a spell of executive friction. After July 7th it could lead to a period of instability of exactly the sort that de Gaulle wanted the fifth-republic constitution to prevent. ■