Hello everyone, I'm Delphine, editor for the site vie-publique.fr, and today I'm going to explain to you how a government ends.
So the end of a government can happen in different cases.
Let's start with resignation cases first.
The day after legislative or presidential elections, it is customary for the Prime Minister to present the resignation of his Government. This is called a courtesy resignation.
Then, the Government can also end during a collective resignation presented by the Prime Minister. This resignation can be:
- either voluntary, in the event of disagreement with the head of state (the only case to date is the resignation of Jacques Chirac in 1976 under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing);
- be initiated by the President of the Republic but this is only possible if the Prime Minister comes from the same political majority. The latter is then, in practice, responsible to the Head of State, which is not the case during periods of cohabitation.
If the President of the Republic refuses the resignation presented by the Prime Minister, the Government legally retains its prerogatives.
Let us now move on to the case where the Government resigns following the questioning of its political responsibility
The National Assembly can provoke by a vote the resignation of a Government when it engages its political responsibility
This responsibility of the government can be engaged according to three different procedures provided for in article 49 of the Constitution:
- First case, the government asks the National Assembly the question of confidence on a declaration of general policy. If the answer is negative, the Government resigns;
- Second case: the National Assembly itself calls into question the responsibility of the Government, by voting a motion of censure by an absolute majority of its members. Only one motion of censure was passed under the Fifth Republic, in 1962, putting an end to the Pompidou Government;
- Finally, the Government can take responsibility for the vote on a text (this is the famous article 49.3 of the Constitution). This text is adopted without a vote, unless a motion of censure is passed by an absolute majority of the members of the Assembly. If this is the case, the Government is forced to resign.
