Missions, number of members, operation... All about the Constitutional Council

Romain Rouillard 17:39 pm, April 13, 2023

Towards the epilogue of this long political sequence around the pension reform? This is in any case the dearest wish of the executive, struggling with a social protest that is struggling to run out of steam. This Friday, late afternoon, the Constitutional Council will make a decision as expected as uncertain as the future of this controversial text, adopted in force by Parliament on March 16. The nine wise men will have to decide on the constitutionality of the reform and no scenario is currently to be excluded. Here's everything you need to know about the highest administrative court, usually in the shadows, but suddenly propelled to the forefront.

Who are the nine wise men who sit on the Council?

As a general rule, members of the Constitutional Council can boast extensive political or legal experience. At the head of the body, we find Laurent Fabius, former Prime Minister of François Mitterrand between 1984 and 1986, but also former President of the National Assembly (1997-2000) or Minister of Foreign Affairs of François Hollande between 2012 and 2016.

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Also at the head of a government under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, Alain Juppé, minister five times in his career, is also among the nine wise men since March 12, 2019. The two tenors of French political life are accompanied by two former ministers of Emmanuel Macron: Jacqueline Gourault, in charge of territorial cohesion between 2018 and 2022, and Jacques Mézard, who was entrusted with the portfolio of Agriculture in 2017.

The other five members have a more relative reputation, but are nevertheless experienced in judicial and administrative tasks. Like the lawyer François Seners, former Secretary General of the Council of State or his colleague Michel Pinault who, among other things, held the position of Chairman of the Sanctions Committee of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). Lawyer François Pillet joined the body in 2019, three years after the former secretary general of the National Assembly, Corinne Luquiens. Appointed in 2022, magistrate Véronique Malbec completes the cast. Finally, former presidents of the Republic are automatically members of the Constitutional Council for life at the end of their mandate. But since the death of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 2020, none of them is part of it.

How and for how long are they appointed?

The appointment of the members of the Constitutional Council is shared between the President of the Republic and his counterparts in the Senate and the National Assembly. Each appoints three of them and it is up to the Head of State to appoint the President of the body. The term of office of the nine wise men shall be nine years and may not be renewed. The Constitutional Council is also renewed by one third every three years. The last round of appointments took place in 2022.

What are the missions of the Constitutional Council?

"Its role, when it was created in 1958, was to monitor the legislative branch so that it does not prevent the executive branch from acting. But that was his initial role. From 1971, the Constitutional Council has emancipated itself a little and it has decided to become what is called a guardian of the rights and freedoms that are contained in the constitution, "said Tuesday on Europe 1 Lauréline Fontaine, professor of public law at the University Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle. Prerogatives, comparable to that of the American Supreme Court, and have pushed the highest administrative court to "present itself as a real counterweight vis-à-vis the executive power and the legislative power that make the law," says the jurist.

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This Friday, they will have to determine whether the pension reform is in accordance with the Constitution. And will then be able to reject part or all of the adopted text as well as validate it entirely. They will also vote on the referendum of shared initiative, wanted by the left, in order to directly probe the French on the reform.

How will decisions be made?

In a very simple way. The nine members each have a small team of legal experts, who are supposed to advise and guide them on certain points of the text. After consulting various elected officials who have filed appeals, the wise men will gather around a table to debate. And will detail in turn what they deem necessary to retoquer or not.

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It will then be up to Laurent Fabius to decide. To preserve the secrets of the Republic, the debates are not made public until after 25 years.