Structure (Metropolitan France only) Today (First round of presidential elections) seems a good time to present an overview of the French parliamentary system and compare it with ours.
Elections for president and the National Assembly are held every five years - the former in April and the latter in June
They are conducted over two rounds, a fortnight apart For President, if no one gets 50% or more of the vote in the first round the two highest go through to the second round. For Deputies, if no one gets 50% or more of the vote in the first round, all those that received 12.5% or more of the vote go through to the second round. Local elections are held every six years on a similar basis as that for Deputies. The Prime Minister is chosen by the President and has no fixed term of office, but his tenure will depend on successes in national elections Members of the Senate (Senators) are elected by a caucus of elected and nominated local officials and councillors France has thirteen Regions, Ninety four Departments and about 34,836 Communes. Some Communes have no inhabitants while others are the size of Paris or Marseilles. As can be seen by the variation in size, Communes have much more power than Parish Councils in Britain. They are more representative of District councils and in the larger cases, more representative of city, borough or London Boroughs. Because their budgets are larger than British ones and dependant on population and industry, Communes have become more aggressive and competitive in attracting industry and inhabitants Nominations for the smaller commune elections can be somewhat surprising at times. When my wife was elected councillor in our village (population 258 at the time, number of councillors - eleven), there were 24 nominations (some under age, some over age, some imaginary and some dead)!
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AuthorMy name is Jack, I live in at the back of Greta Garbo`s home for wayward boys and girls Categories
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