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Unit 7: Constitutional Structure: Executive

meeting takes place between the period provided for ordinary sessions, a session shall by right be Notes
held for a duration of 15 days.
The Constitution empowers the President to send messages to the two Houses of the Parliament. He
can call the Parliament for special sessions to hear his messages. ‘This message is to be read in the
Assembly and the Senate but not to be debated. He appoints the President of the State Council and its
three members out of nine. He can seek the opinion of the Constitutional Council in regard to the
constitutional validity of organic laws and regulations made by the Parliament before they come into
operation. It is obvious that the President has no veto power like his American counterpart to reject a
bill or even, like the British king, he has no power of placing his signatures on the bill passed by the
Parliament. According to a well-established convention, it may be discovered that he has a suspensive
veto in the sense that he may ask the Parliament for the reconsideration of a bill as a whole or in part
and his request cannot be refused.
In addition to these executive and legislative powers, the President has emergency powers also. Art.
16 of the Constitution lays down: “When the institution of the Republic, the independence of the
nation, the integrity of the territory, or the fulfilment of its international commitments are threatened
in a grave and immediate manner and when the regular functioning of the constitutional governmental
authorities is interrupted, the President of the Republic shall take the measures commanded by these
circumstances, after official consultation with the Premier, the Presidents of the Assemblies and the
Constitutional Council. He shall inform the nation of these measures in message. These measures
must be prompted by the desire to ensure to the constitutional governmental authorities, in the shortest
possible time, the means of fulfilling their assigned functions. The Constitutional Council shall be
consulted with regard to such measures. Parliament shall meet by right. The National Assembly may
not be dissolved during the exercise of emergency powers by the President.”
This provision places sweeping powers in the hands of the President by empowering him to take
whatever steps he deems necessary and expedient to face the national crisis caused by a serious
threat to the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory or the fulfilment of international
commitments, or when the regular functioning of the constitutional government is seriously
interrupted. The actual use of authority under the provision of Art. 16 enables the President to secure
more powers after their authorisation from the Parliament, or even delegate his emergency powers
to the Cabinet if he is out of the country. For instance, President de Gaulle left a decree with his
Cabinet (when he had gone to the United States in May, 1960) to make use of this particular power in
case a rebellion broke out. Justification of this particular action of the President finds place not in the
words of the Constitution as such as in the precedents of history. While discarding a note of dissent
in this regard, de Gaulle recollected the case of President Lebrun who had told him that he had not
been able to leave France in 1940, and so the resistance was delayed.
An enumeration of the functions and powers of the President confirms the view that he is not at all a
nominal executive like the English monarch. He is the ‘master’ of the national executive which has
taken the Parliament under its subservience. The President is the virtual ‘master’ of both the executive
and the legislature and the behaviour of de Gaulle well confirmed the fears of his critics. Herman Finer
points out: “By these powers the executive branch has been immensely strengthened; the Assembly has
been put in a subordinate place, in which it has reason truly to fear intimidation by a determined
President of the Republic.” While taking the case of de Gaulle, Pickles holds that the Head of the Fifth
Republic “regards both Government and Parliament as being, in their different ways, mere agents of
the President. In fields which he considers vital, the President rules as well as reigns.”
Actual Position: The actual position of the French President is a matter of debate. To the defenders of
the Constitution, he is meant to be the head of the state as, according to the letter and spirit of the
fundamental law of the land, he should be no more than that particularly during normal times. The
chief engineer of this Constitution, Michael Debre, designates his political system as ‘parliamentary’
and the ‘only one suitable for France’. If France has a parliamentary system of government, the position
of the President despite a formidable list of his powers and prerogatives, remains like the President
of the Indian Republic. On the contrary, it is asserted that France has a peculiar ‘Presidential’ system
of government in which real power is in the hands of the President who keeps the Prime Minister as
his nominee and who reigns as well as rules. It is evident from these points:

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