TITLE VI. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Article 70
The law shall be passed by the National Assembly by a simple majority. However, the laws to which this Constitution gives the character of organic law shall be passed under the following conditions:
- the proposition or project shall only be submitted to the deliberation and vote of the National Assembly after the expiration of a period of fifteen days after its filing with the Office of the National Assembly;
the text shall only be adopted by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly. The organic laws shall only be promulgated after a declaration by the Constitutional Court as to their conformity with the Constitution.
The law shall determine rules concerning:
- the civil rights and fundamental guaranties granted to citizens for the exercise of public liberties, the obligations imposed by the National Defense upon the persons and property of citizens;
nationality, civil rights, status and legal capacity of persons, marriage contracts, inheritance and gifts, property rights, actual rights and civil and commercial obligations, societal systems, expropriation; the crimes and misdemeanors as well as the penalties imposed therefore, criminal procedure, amnesty, the creation of new juridical systems and the status of Ministerial Officers, the status of the juridical professions and the Judiciary; the general status of government employees; the general status of Armed Forces and Security personnel; the regulation of currency, the bases, rates and methods of tax collection.
The law shall equally determine the fundamental principles:
- of general organization of defense and security;
of the right to work, of social security, of syndication; of the organization and the competence of professional orders; of instruction and research of the protection of the cultural and archeological patrimony; of public accountability; of creation, of the organization and control of public services and organizations; of nationalizations of enterprises, of privatizations and of the transfer of the property of enterprises from the public to the private sector.(;) of an electoral system of the free administration of local units, of their competence and their resources; administrative organization of territory; administration and transfer from the domain of the State; organization of production; organization of justice; system of penal institutions.
The Law of Finances shall determine the resources and the duties of the State.
The plan shall be adopted by the National Assembly. It shall determine the objectives of economic and social action of the State.
Article 71
A declaration of war shall be authorized by the National Assembly specially convened for this purpose.
The President of the Republic shall inform the nation by a message.
Article 72
State of emergency and state of siege shall be decreed in the Council of Ministers.
Their extension beyond ten days shall only be authorized by the National Assembly.
A law shall determine their conditions.
Article 73
Matters other than those coining within the domain of the law shall be of a regulatory character.
Legislative texts concerning these matters before the entry into force of the present Constitution may be modified by decree after consultation with the Supreme Court.
Those of these texts which may be passed after the entry into force of the present Constitution may only be modified by decree if the Constitutional Court has declared that they are of a regulatory character with respect to the preceding paragraph.
The laws and regulations shall be published in the Official Journal.
Article 74
The Government may in order to carry out its program or in areas determined by law, demand the authorization of Parliament to take by Ordnance, during a specified period of time or between the two sessions (of the National Assembly), measures that are normally within the domain of the law.
Ordinances shall be taken in the Council of Ministers after consultation with the Supreme Court. They become operative from the time of their adoption, but become null and void if the bill for their ratification is not submitted to the National Assembly before the date set by the enabling act. Upon the expiration of the date mentioned in the first paragraph of the present Article, Ordinances shall only be modified by the law in matters which are in the legislative domain.
Article 75
Initiation of laws shall belong concurrently to the Government and to the members of the National Assembly.
Bills shall be deliberated in the Council of Ministers after consultation with the Supreme Court and filed with the Office of the National Assembly.
Article 76
The members of the National Assembly and the Government shall possess the right of Amendment.
After the opening of debate, the Government may oppose the examination of any Amendment that was not first submitted to it.
Article 77
The National Assembly shall consider the appropriations bill at the opening of the ordinary session preceding the fiscal period. The appropriations bill must anticipate the income necessary for completely meeting all expenditures.
If the National Assembly has not acted on this matter before the beginning of the fiscal period or if it has not passed the budget, the Government shall resubmit the proposed budget within fifteen days to the National Assembly convened in special session for this purpose.
The National Assembly shall then act within eight days. If this deliberation has not resulted in a budgetary vote, it shall be automatically established by the Government on the basis of the revenues of the preceding fiscal period and after consultation with the Supreme Court.
Article 78
The Prime Minister, after the deliberation of the Council of Ministers, shall pledge before the Assembly the responsibility of the Government with regard to its program or eventually with respect to a declaration of general policy.
The National Assembly shall question the responsibility of the Government by the vote of a motion of censure. Such a motion shall only be receivable if it is signed by at lea stone tenth of the members of the National Assembly. The vote may only take place forty eight hours after its filing. The only votes counted shall be those favorable to the motion of censure which may only be adopted by a two thirds majority of the members composing the Assembly. If the motion of censure is rejected, the signatories may not propose another during the course of the same session.
The Prime Minister may, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, pledge the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly on the vote of a text. In this case, the text shall be considered as adopted, unless a motion of censure, filed in the following twenty four hours, is passed.
Article 79
When the National Assembly adopts a motion of censure or when it disapproves the program or the declaration of general policy of the Government, the Prime Minister shall submit to the President of the Republic the resignation of the Government.
Article 80
The close of ordinary or special sessions shall by right be delayed in order to permit, should the case arise, the application of the dispositions of Article 78.
