France: time for a 6th Republic?

[AY1975]

Following on from the thread on the French presidential election at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/the-2022-french-elections-discussion.230499/ a number of French politicians and political commentators have argued that France's current constitutional settlement, i.e. the Fifth Republic, is no longer fit for purpose, and have called for constitutional reforms or even a completely different regime, i.e. a Sixth Republic.

In fact, I think some of them have been saying that for years.

Clearly, a 6th Republic could take many different forms, from minor tweaks to the constitution to a completely different model of government. Does anyone have any thoughts on what a 6th Republic should look like?

For a start, I would suggest replacing the two-round voting system with proportional representation: probably Single Transferable Vote for presidential elections and STV or Additional Member/Mixed Member for parliamentary elections.

That's assuming that a 6th Republic would keep the existing hybrid model with both a President and a Prime Minister: they could move to a different model such as a German-style federal republic.

I think they should also reduce the length of each parliamentary and presidential term from five to four years, and there should be more devolution of powers to the Regions, the Departments and the Communes.

If you can read French, there are several articles on the topic: just search for "6eme Republique".

 

[Cloud Strife]

Clearly, a 6th Republic could take many different forms, from minor tweaks to the constitution to a completely different model of government. Does anyone have any thoughts on what a 6th Republic should look like?

Throwing some random ideas:

I wouldn't change the two round system, but I would have a longer break between the two rounds. The problem with a two round system is that they don't really offer candidates a chance to change the minds of voters. We saw the same in the Polish election in 2020, where the incumbent was losing ground with every passing day. If the election had gone on for another 2 weeks, Duda would have lost, because his weaknesses (downright hostility towards him in cities, his poor ability to debate and downright refusal to debate in the second round) would have cost him dearly.

The same would likely have applied here, as Le Pen's weaknesses would have become far more apparent as the race went on.

I would get rid of the Prime Minister and have a Cypriot-style Presidency instead, where the President oversees a cabinet of ministers.

Agreed with devolution of powers. France could really do much better with Spanish style devolution, rather than the centralised model which ends up with France ignoring mostly everything that happens outside of the cities.

However, I think it is important for France to keep a strong central President. It's part of their political culture, much more so than in other countries.

 

[AY1975]

I believe that the French constitution was amended a few years ago to limit each President to a maximum of two terms (as with the US President). I would suggest that they should also limit the number of times that an unsuccessful presidential candidate can stand for election to, say, two or three times.

If such a protocol were in place, Marine Le Pen would not be able to stand again in 2027, and then her party would have to put up someone else who might not be as well known to the electorate. That would make it harder for a far-right (or far-left for that matter) President to get elected.

AIUI the French constitution allows referendums to be held in certain circumstances but I'm not sure if there are any specific protocols on constitutional changes or how referendums should be conducted (such as whether a minimum threshold or only a simple majority should be required to trigger the change that's being offered). AFAIK the French constitution doesn't have as robust protocols on referendums or constitutional changes as in some other countries such as Germany, Switzerland, the USA or Australia, though. I think that needs to be addressed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The "rounds" could be avoided entirely by using AV (Alternative Vote) which removes "wasted votes".