Article 49 of the French Constitution

This article has been translated from the article Article 49 of the French Constitution in the French Wikipedia, and requires proofreading. If you are confident enough in your fluency of English and French, please proofread it. (April 2023)

Article 49 of the French Constitution is an article of the French Constitution, the fundamental law of the Fifth French Republic.^[1][2] It sets out and structures the political responsibility of the government (the executive branch) towards the parliament (legislative branch). It is part of Title V: "On relations between the parliament and the government" (Articles 34 through 51),^[3] and with the intention of maintaining the stability of the French executive the section provides legislative alternatives to the parliament. It was written into the constitution to counter the perceived weakness^[4] of the Fourth Republic, such as "deadlock"^[5] and successive rapid government takeovers, by giving the government the ability to pass bills without the approbation of the parliament, possible under Section 3 of Article 49.^[6]

The article, which comprises four paragraphs, was designed to prevent crises like those that occurred under the Fourth Republic.^[a] Its best-known provision, paragraph 3 (Article 49.3), allows the government to force passage of a law without a vote, unless the parliament passes a motion of no confidence.^[7] A motion of no confidence rarely passes, since it also entails the dissolution of the legislature pending new elections. Article 49 paragraph 3 provides for:^[8]

• an engagement de responsabilité (commitment of responsibility) of the administration to a certain program or declaration of policy, initiated by the executive branch. This measure should not be confused with the "question of confidence", which no longer exists under the French Fifth Republic.
• a motion de censure or vote of no confidence, initiated by the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly).
• administration option to force passage of a legislative text without a vote through an engagement de responsabilité, unless the National Assembly is prepared to overturn it with a motion de censure.
• an administration option to request approval of its policy by the French Senate, although the refusal of this approval would have consequences in the judicial branch

Article 49 paragraph 2 outlines a censure spontanée (spontaneous motion of no confidence), as opposed to the following paragraph 49.3, which outlines a motion of no confidence in some way "provoked" by the executive branch. Such a motion requires an absolute majority of members to vote for its adoption, and thus this provision changes the burden of proof and forces the Assembléé Nationale to reject the entire administration. The government cannot be overturned by counting the votes of undecided Assembly members who would simply abstain. This paragraph of Article 49 has only come into play once, in 1962 against Georges Pompidou, who then had to resign, but returned to power with newfound support after winning a decisive majority in the ensuing legislative elections.

Articles 50,^[9] 50.1^[10] and 51^[11] relate directly to Article 49, since Article 50 complements 49.2, Article 51 provides technical detail about the implementation of Article 49.3, and 50.1 gives the executive an option for a declaration with an ensuing debate.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).