59 sats \ 28 replies \ @Undisciplined 9 Jun \ on: Earthquake in France: Macron dissolves parliament after catastrophic result news
Many things that happen in European politics sound insane to Americans, but then it turns out we just don't understand the institutions and processes involved.
How big of a deal is dissolving parliament? Is there historical precedent?
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lol.. true dat
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It happened from time to time under the 5th Republic in France. Last occurence was Chirac in 1997. So yeah, kinda of a big deal.
Note that France is a bicameral system where the Parliament has two chambers: the Assemblée Nationale ("national assembly", which Macron just dissolved) and the Sénat (senate). The Assemblée Nationale can dismiss the government, and reciprocally the President can dissolve the Assemblée Nationale. But the Sénat remains unchanged.
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Is there a prime minister in France 🇫🇷?
Sorry for the simple mind question
That's fascinating. It would be terrifying if the American president could dissolve the House of Representatives, but we do have impeachment that goes the other way.
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He didn’t have a strong majority so has been hampered for the last couple of years. As long as there wasn’t a dissolution within the last year and senior members of the State agree they can dissolve and call an election (he could have done it in 2023).
Fixed term elections aren’t that common; the European Parliament and US Congress and US Presidential being prominent examples. In this case a fixed term election in Europe seems to have forced an election in France…
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So, they have to re-elect the entire parliament? If things are trending against him, why would that help?
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Senate has more seats than I expected
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Thank you for clarifying this.
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Yes. He has been called to do it every couple of months it seems. It’s a semi-bluff to the electorate which sometimes works: in the UK Boris Johnson called a snap election in 2019 and was given a large majority from a campaign for his European stance and an unpopular (socialist) opponent.
It’s ’this is what I stand for. This can’t go on. Back me or sack me’
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He's fleeing what's coming to the EU: an economical meltdown. Le Pen is against the Euro and illegal mass immigration and this movement is gaining momentum
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That's interesting. It reminds of when the Republicans allowed the Green New Deal come up for a vote. It was such bad legislation that most of its sponsors voted against it.
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We needed to hearings before voting!
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*have hearings…
Hard not to agree…
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….smiling piranha slowly nibbling away at a disintergrating corpse…
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This 5 minute video clearly explains how Europe works. In addition to what is explained in the video, there are national governments that have their own laws but are required to transpose European laws. Broadly speaking, we can compare the laws of the European Parliament to the federal laws of the United States and national laws to American state laws.
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Here's a good 5min article explaining how un-democratic the EU actually is, and why the current elections won't change much, because those in power, like Ursula vdL, are nominated, and not elected.
https://unherd.com/?p=605287
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nominated by whom?
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Dissolving parliament sounds like the Weimar Republic
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