National Assembly of France
The National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, with the upper house being the Senate. Its function is to debate, propose and reform laws, it also has the function of controlling the action of the Government. It is located in the Bourbon Palace in Paris. Since 1986, the National Assembly has 577 members, called deputies, elected by direct universal suffrage with second ballot for a period of five years.
There are 577 deputies, each elected by a single-member constituency (at least one per department) through a ballot system. Therefore, 289 seats are required for a majority. The President of the National Assembly, currently Richard Ferrand, chairs the body. The incumbent of the office is usually a member of the party with the highest representation, assisted by vice-presidents. The term of the National Assembly is five years; however, the President of the Republic may dissolve the Assembly (calling for new elections) unless it has been dissolved in the previous twelve months. This measure has become inconvenient since the 2000 referendum that reduced the presidential term from seven to five years: since 2002, the President of the Republic has always had a majority in the Assembly because he is elected two months after the election. presidential election. Consequently, it would be of little benefit to dissolve it.
History
The first French National Assembly was constituted in 1789 and served as a bridge between the Assembly of the Estates General of 1789 and the National Constituent Assembly created on July 9 of the same year, which endowed France with its first Constitution. Although since that date the French have periodically elected representatives, the manner of election and the powers of the representatives of the lower house have varied considerably from time to time, with periods of decreased powers of the Assembly coinciding with moments of regression of freedoms. public.
The name "National Assembly" Adopted in 1789, it was not used again until the Second French Republic in 1848, to disappear with the advent of Napoleon III and to reappear after the Second World War, in 1946.
Headquarters
The National Assembly is located in the Bourbon Palace, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, in a building that since 1799 has housed all the lower houses of the French Parliament. Its monumental façade, slightly offset from the axis of the rest of the building, faces the famous Quai d'Orsay (the National Assembly is also next to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pont de la Concorde). Although the main entrance is number 126 from University street, it can also be accessed via Quai d'Orsay (33-35) and Aristide-Briand street. The Hôtel de Lassay, seat of the presidency and official residence of the president of the National Assembly, is also attached to the Bourbon Palace.
All the buildings assigned to the National Assembly cover an area of 158,000 m² for about 9,500 premises. In addition to the Palacio Borbón, it consists of four other buildings reserved for the offices of the deputies and their collaborators:
- A first seven-storey building built in 1974, located across the University Street, at number 101, and joined the Bourbon Palace by an underground passage.
- A second located in the boulevard of Saint-Germain, 233, acquired in 1986.
- A third purchased in 2002, located on Aristide-Briand Street, 3 (formerly the seat of the party Agrupación por la República).
- A room purchased in 2016 when it hosted ministerial offices, the Hôtel de Broglie should be renovated to replace the location of offices on Aristide-Briand Street, 3.
Some of these buildings also house the services necessary for the operation of the National Assembly. These services include, in particular, the IT department, which guarantees the proper functioning of the equipment used by legislative agents, but also all the digital platforms that are offered directly to deputies or to Internet users. Other services such as accounting, human resources or administration are also housed in this place.
Features
Functions of the National Assembly
The powers of the National Assembly are defined by the Constitution, which was amended several times between 1958 and 2010. The Assembly votes on laws, controls government action, and assesses public policy.
The President of the French Republic can dissolve the Assembly, except if he has already done so within the last year. The dissolution automatically entails the calling of new general elections. The Assembly has more powers in this field than the Senate, and can remove the Prime Minister (who is appointed by the President of the Republic) through three procedures: the vote of confidence, the motion of censure and the commitment of government responsibility over a specific law text.
Relations with the Senate
The National Assembly votes and proposes laws, together with the Senate. If a bill or bill is rejected by the Senate, the text returns to the Assembly to be amended. This to-and-fro of bills between the two chambers until a vote of approval is achieved in both is called navette parlementaire. If the disagreement persists, a mixed parliamentary commission is created, made up of 7 deputies and 7 senators, to establish a new text with a better chance of being approved. When no agreement is reached, it is the National Assembly that approves the text in the terms decided by its deputies. This procedure is called the "power of the last word," a power that the Constitution grants to the National Assembly.
Members
The National Assembly consists of 577 deputies, each of whom is elected in up to two rounds of voting. They are elected by an electoral constituency but do not represent it, but rather represent the entire nation. Each constituency has an average of 105,600 inhabitants, and the variation in size between constituencies cannot exceed 20%.
In accordance with the constitutional law of July 23, 2008 establishing the representation of French people living outside France in the National Assembly and the redistribution of electoral constituencies in 2010, seats are distributed as follows, since the 2012 elections:
- 556 for the French departments.
- 10 for the overseas communities.
- 11 for the French who live outside France.
Each candidate presents himself with a substitute who takes his place in case of death or incompatibility of functions.
The term of office of the Assembly and its deputies is five years.
Current composition
Parliamentary groups
According to the regulations of the National Assembly, "deputies can regroup based on political affinities" in parliamentary groups. They must contain at least 15 members (as of 2009, this number was 20 between 1988 and 2009, and 30 before). The political group must present a political declaration signed by its members at the opening of the legislature to the President of the National Assembly.
In addition to the full members of the group, who are usually members of the same party (PS, LR, EELV, etc.), some deputies may "join" to a group: then they are not included in the minimum of 15 for the formation of the group. They tend to be members of small or no-label parties close to the mainstream of the main political movement behind the formation of the group.
The groups decide, with the president of the National Assembly, the areas of the chamber where they will sit. So they are the sole judges of how to distribute their members and affiliates within this zone. They have their own organization and their own internal regulations, they choose from among themselves a president who will represent them within the Conference of Presidents and who will have several important prerogatives (such as the request or, on the contrary, the opposition to the creation of a special commission, the right to obtain a suspension of the session to convene the group, request a vote by public vote, call a session to verify the quorum for a vote, prepare the specific monthly parliamentary agenda for your group, propose or oppose the initiation of simplified commitment procedures, or even the "draw right" that allows you to obtain once a year the examination in public session a resolution proposing the creation of a commission of inquiry, etc.). Each group, according to its numerical representation within the Assembly, appoints its representatives within the Table and the different commissions. In addition, depending on their size, they have their own economic subsidy and have offices and meeting rooms.
The record number of political groups was reached in May 2020 with the creation of a ninth and a tenth group.
Currently, the National Assembly is in its 16th legislature, which began as a result of the general elections on June 12 and 19, 2022. Thus, the chamber was divided as follows:
| Parliamentary Group | Components | Chairman/a | Scalls | Affiliates | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rebirth Renaissance |  LReM: 133 TDP: 14Agir: 6 Divers centre: 4 In Common: 4 DVD: 2 Horizons: 2 Radical Party: 2 Ecological Party: 2 Calédonie ensemble: 1 FP: 1 Générations NC: 1 | Aurore Bergé | 168 | 4 | 172 | |
| National grouping Rassemblement National |  RN: 88LS: 1 | Marine Le Pen | 88 | 1 | 89 | |
| France Insumisa-New Union popular ecological and social La France insoumise-Nouvelle Union Populaire écologique et sociale |  FI
| Mathilde Panot | 75 | 0 | 75 | |
| The Republicans Les Républicains |  LR: 58Free!: 2  UDI: 1DVD: 1 | Olivier Marleix | 59 | 3 | 62 | |
| Democrat (MoDem and Independent) Démocrate (MoDem et Indépendants) |  MoDem: 46 LReM: 3
| Jean-Paul Mattei | 49 | 0 | 49 | |
| Socialists and affiliates (NUPES) Socialistes et apparentés (NUPES) | PS: 27 PPM: 1 Divers gauche: 1 PPDG: 1 FGPS:1 | Boris Vallaud | 27 | 4 | 31 | |
| Horizons and affiliates Horizons et apparentés | Horizons: 28 Centrist Alliance: 2 | Laurent Marcangeli | 28 | 2 | 30 | |
| Ecologista-NUPES Écologiste-NUPES |  EELV: 16Génération.s: 4 GÉ: 2 NLD: 1 | Julien Bayou | 23 | 0 | 23 | |
| Democratic and Republican Left-NUPES Gauche démocrate et républicaine-NUPES | .svg){kind=small} PCF: 12 Tavini Huiraatira: 3Divers gauche: 2 By the Meeting: 2 Péyi-A: 1 MDES: 1 Progrès: 1 | André Chassaigne | 22 | 0 | 22 | |
| Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires | UDI: 5 Femu a Corsica: 2 Divers gauche: 2 Divers droite: 2 Radical Party: 1 Archipel demain: 1 The Centrists: 1 PNC: 1 Regionalist: 1 | Bertrand Pancher | 16 | 0 | 16 | |
| Unregistered Members Députés non inscrits | Divers gauche: 3 PS: 2  PRG: 1DVD: 1 .svg){kind=logo} DLF: 1EXD: 1 | Not applicable | 9 | 0 | 9 | |
