Cohabitation in France: is the risk of political paralysis real? (2024)

Following its defeat in the presidential election, La France Insoumise (LFI) does not intend on stopping at the door of the second round, and wants to make the legislative elections resemble a "third round" of the presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has thus asked the French to "elect him prime minister", on June 12 and 19, leaving the hope of a return to cohabitation at the helm of the country.

Under the 5^th Republic, France has experienced three cohabitations following legislative elections won by the opposition to the president's party. The first was from 1986 to 1988, when François Mitterrand (Parti Socialiste – PS) had Jacques Chirac (Rassemblement pour la République – RPR) as prime minister, the second during president Mitterrand's second term with Edouard Balladur (RPR), from 1993 to 1995, and, finally, a longer one between Mr. Chirac (RPR) as president and Lionel Jospin (PS) as prime minister, from 1997 to 2002.

Since 2000, the transition to a five-year term and the change in the electoral calendar – so that legislative elections follow immediately after the presidential election – have made cohabitation situations very hypothetical. In fact, there have never been any, and the president has always obtained a majority in the Assemblée Nationale during the weeks following his election.

Some observers have seen in cohabitation the risk of political paralysis, although it has a good image as far as public opinion is concerned. Above all, it raises questions regarding the distribution of powers between the president and the prime minister.

Secondary role for the president

According to the Constitution, the country's domestic politics are clearly entrusted to members of the government:

• "the prime minister directs the action of the government, ensures the execution of laws and is responsible for national defense;"
• "the government determines and conducts the policy of the nation, and has the administration and the armed force at its disposal."

"In the event of cohabitation, there is power, clearly, in the relationship between the prime minister and the Assemblée Nationale," said constitutional scholar Dominique Rousseau, emeritus professor at the University of Paris-I-Panthéon-Sorbonne

In these power-sharing situations, the president has a more secondary role. His own powers are regulated, and it is he in particular who :

• appoints the prime minister of his choice (who must, however, have the confidence of the Assemblée);
• presides over the council of ministers (but loses his influence over them), signs decrees and ordinances and has the power to appoint civil and military officials of the state;
• may dissolve the Assemblée Nationale (not more than once a year);
• may claim exceptional powers in the event of a "serious and immediate" threat to the institutions, the independence of the nation, the integrity of the territory or the execution of international commitments.

The case of foreign affairs and defense

It is a misnomer to say the areas of national defense and foreign affairs remain the exclusive domain of the president. The Constitution is far from categorical on this issue. According to articles 20 and 21, the government "has the administration and the armed forces at its disposal" and "the prime minister is responsible for national defence."

On the other hand, the text makes the head of state the "guarantor of national independence and the integrity of the national territory" (article 5), "the head of the armies" and he "presides over the councils and higher committees of national defense" (article 15). He holds the nuclear codes and he alone decides on the use of this force. In terms of foreign policy, the Constitution provides that the president negotiates and ratifies international treaties (article 52) and designates ambassadors (article 14).

"This is where lies the ambiguity of our 1958 Constitution," said Professor Rousseau. "It reflects the contrary influences of Michel Debré, who wanted a strong prime minister, based on the British parliamentary model, and Charles de Gaulle, who wanted to give more weight to the president."

This ambiguity has forced prime ministers and presidents to come to a certain understanding. This is why it has been customary during the three cohabitations to choose ministers of defense and foreign affairs who please both men in power, in order to avoid frictions. "In the past, there were consensuses in those areas, but today there are real differences, on the role of the European Union, or on the war in Ukraine. This seems much more unstable and could cause problems in the event of a cohabitation," said the constitutionalist.

A leader of the opposition with real power

Although cohabitation would mean the president is the leader of the opposition, he would have the significant advantage of being in the Elysée Palace, retaining a significant tribunician-like power. During the first cohabitation, president Mitterrand gave press conferences in which he castigated the policies of prime minister Chirac's government. Less than a month after the beginning of the third cohabitation, in 1997, president Chirac took advantage of the usual July 14 television interview to criticize the first decisions of prime minister Jospin's government. He did not refrain from doing so afterwards either.

Since the president is the only one who can sign decrees and ordinances in the council of ministers, he would also benefit here from the ability to cause harm to an opposition government. In July 1986, president Mitterrand refused to sign the ordinances on denationalization presented by prime minister Chirac's government, which had nevertheless obtained authorization from parliament to legislate by ordinance. These provided in particular for the privatization of more than 60 industrial groups, unraveling the work done by the socialists when they came to power.

Faced with the president's refusal, Mr. Chirac had to transform the draft ordinances into a bill, which was quickly passed by the Assemblée Nationale after the government engaged its responsibility via article 49-3 of the Constitution. If President Mitterrand did not have the power to block the text, this maneuver did allow him to remain true to his political positions, and repositioned him on the left side of the political spectrum. He did it again in October 1986 by refusing to sign ordinances on the electoral division, then that on the flexibilization of work time in December 1986.

Finally, the head of state retains the considerable power to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale. If this hypothesis was improbable during the first two cohabitations, limited to two years while waiting for the presidential election, it became credible following the early legislative elections of 1997. Having dissolved the Assemblée Nationale himself, president Chirac had to wait a year before he could claim a new dissolution.

He had this power back in 1998, but did not use it. However, it acted as a sword of Damocles over prime minister Jospin's head. "It is a system of reciprocal neutralization," said political scientist Alain Garrigou. "The president cannot execute the program he was elected for, while the prime minister must govern, avoiding any wrong moves that could motivate the president to dissolve the Assemblée to win back the legislative elections." For the emeritus professor in political science at the University of Paris-Nanterre, "Mr. Jospin was under the threat of a dissolution the last four years of his government, holding on to the results of the opinion polls." This long and poor experience convinced the two men in power between 1997 and 2002 to reform the elections in order to avoid cohabitations as much as possible.

Measures taken during cohabitation

It was during the first cohabitation, that it was noted the 1958 Constitution gave a greater role to the prime minister, with the Assemblée's support. "Despite the conflictual nature of a cohabitation governement, the fear of a governing paralysis has not been verified," wrote Mr. Garrigou in his book La Politique en France (Politics in France) (2017, La Découverte).

According to him, 105 laws were passed during the first cohabitation, without there ever being a definitive blockage. President Chirac's government was thus able to unravel what the previous government had done: as early as 1986, it privatized companies that had been nationalized in 1981; it reversed the introduction of proportional representation in legislative elections decided by the socialists a year earlier, and, lastly, re-established the majority vote. In August 1986, the government canceled the concessions of two private channels, TV6 and La Cinq. "It also passed laws on the security and residence of foreigners: expulsion by prefectural decision, restriction of access to the ten-year residence permit," said Mr. Garrigou.

The second cohabitation, that of President Mitterrand and Prime Minister Balladur, was not synonymous with paralysis either. The RPR prime minister was able to continue the previous cohabitation's unfinished liberal program. A law privatizing 21 companies was enacted in July 1993. A pension reform applicable to private sector employees was adopted: the length of contribution required to obtain a full-rate pension was gradually increased from 37.5 to 40 years and the amount of the pension was calculated on 25 years of salary, compared to 10 before.

From 1997 to 2002, the Jospin government also adopted numerous measures on the left. In December 1997, it presented its reform of the reduction of working hours. President Chirac denounced an "authoritarian and general measure," but the 35-hour reform was passed, via two laws in 1998 and 2000, before being applicable in all companies started 2002. Among the main laws adopted under this government, and to which President Chirac was opposed, there was also the one introducing universal health coverage (CMU) in July 1999 and the creation of the civil solidarity pact (PACS) in October 1999.