TITLE VI. OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE POWER AND THE LEGISLATIVE POWER
Article 138
The President of the Republic can dissolve the National Assembly.
Article 139
The National Assembly can, by the vote of a motion of censure, overthrow [renverser] the Government.
Article 140
Each Chamber of the Parliament orders [arrte] the agenda of its sessions.
The President of each Chamber informs the Government of it [en].
Article 141
The Prime Minister and the other members of the Government have access to the works [travaux] of the National Assembly and of the Senate as well as of those of their commissions.
When they are invited by one or the other Chambers of the Parliament, the Prime Minister and the other members of the Government have the obligation to attend the sittings [séances] of the Chamber that made the demand and to furnish the parliamentarians [with] all [the] explanations related to their activities.
The Prime Minister and the other members of the Government may be heard at their demand. They may equally be heard on interpellation, on the written or oral questions that are addressed to them.
Article 142
The Parliament controls the action of the Government.
Article 143
The initiative of the laws belongs, concurrently, to the Government and to the members of the Parliament.
Article 144
The bills of law are deliberated in the Council of Ministers after [the] opinion of the Supreme Court and transmitted to one or the other Chamber of the Parliament.
The proposals of law, are, before deliberation and vote, communicated for [his] information to the Prime Minister.
Article 145
The proposals of law and the amendments presented by the members of the Parliament and tending to augment or to diminish the expenses of the State must be paired [assortis] with proposals showing [dégageant] the correspondent receipts or savings.
Article 146
The bills, the proposals of law and the amendments that are not of the domain of the law, are not receivable. The irreceivability is pronounced by the President of the interested Chamber, after deliberation of the Bureau.
In the case of dispute, the Constitutional Court, referred to [the matter] by the Prime Minister or by the President of the interested Chamber, decides within a time period of fifteen (15) days.
Article 147
The discussion of the bills of law focuses on, before the first Chamber referred to [the matter], the text presented by the Government.
A Chamber, referred to [the matter of] a text voted by the other Chamber, deliberates on the text that is transmitted to it.
Article 148
The bills and proposals of law are sent to one of the permanent commissions that each Chamber of the Parliament has.
The bills and proposals of law can, at the demand of the Government or of the Chamber referred [to the matter], be sent, for examination, to the special commissions designated to this effect.
The number and the nature of the permanent commissions are determined by the internal regulations of each Chamber of the Parliament.
The permanent commissions are constituted in a manner that reflects, as much as possible, the political configuration of each Chamber of the Parliament.
Article 149
The Government and the members of Parliament have the right of amendment.
Any bill of law, any proposal of law, presented before one or the other Chamber of the Parliament, may be the objet of a withdrawal in the course of the debates or before the opening of these.
Article 150
Any bill or any proposal of law is examined, successively, by the two Chambers with a view to the adoption of an identical text.
When, following a disagreement between the two Chambers, a bill or a proposal of law could not be adopted after one reading by each Chamber, the Prime Minister has the faculty to provoke the meeting of a mixed parity commission [commission mixte paritaire] given the charge of proposing a text on the provisions remaining in discussion.
The text, elaborated by the mixed parity commission is submitted, by the Prime Minister, for approval to the two Chambers of the Parliament. No amendment is receivable, save [with the] accord of the Government.
If the mixed parity commission does not achieve [parvient] the adoption of a common text, the Prime Minister can, after a new reading by the National Assembly and the Senate, demand of the National Assembly to definitively decide.
In this case, the National Assembly can retake either the text elaborated by the mixed parity commission, or the last text voted by it, modified, the case arising, by one or several amendments adopted by the Senate.
Article 151
The laws to which the Constitution confers the character of organic laws, except the law of finance, are voted and modified in the following conditions:
- the bill or the proposal of law is only submitted for deliberation and vote to the first Chamber referred to [the matter] at the expiration of a time period of fifteen (15) days after its deposit;
the procedure of Article 147 and 150 is applicable. However, lacking [an] agreement between the two Chambers, the text may only be adopted by the National Assembly in [its] final reading with the absolute majority of its members; the organic laws may not be promulgated until after the declaration by the Constitutional Court of their conformity with the Constitution.
Article 152
The Parliament is referred to [the matter] of the bill of the law of finance at the latest eight (8) days before the opening of the session of October.
The National Assembly is referred to [the matter] in the first instance [en premier lieu] of the bill of the law of finance of the year, of the rectifying [rectificatives] bills of law of finance and of the bills of law of regulation.
Article 153
If the Parliament has not voted the budget at the end of the session of October, the Prime Minister demands an extraordinary session of which the duration cannot exceed fifteen (15) days.
Passing this time, the budget is established, definitively, by ordinance after the opinion of the Constitutional Court.
If the Parliament has not been referred to [the matter] of the bill of the law of finance within the time periods specified in Article 152 and the budget has not been voted in the course [issu] of this first extraordinary session, a second extraordinary session is convoked at the demand of the Prime Minister.
Article 154
An organic law regulates the mode of presentation of the budget of the State.
The Parliament regulates the accounts of the Nation. It is assisted, to this end, by the Court of Accounts and of Budgetary Discipline.
Article 155
The bill of law of regulation is presented and distributed, at the latest, at the end of the year that follows the year of execution of the budget.
Article 156
The declaration of war is authorized by the Parliament meeting in Congress. When, following exceptional circumstances, the Parliament cannot sit usefully, the decision on the declaration of war is taken in the Council of Ministers by the President of the Republic. He informs the Nation immediately of it.
Article 157
The state of urgency like the state of siege is decreed by the President of the Republic in [the] Council of Ministers. The Parliament meets of plain right.
The state of urgency like the state of siege may be proclaimed in all or [in] part of the Republic for a duration that may not exceed twenty (20) days.
In both cases, the President of the Republic informs the Nation by a message. The Parliament meets of plain right, if it is not in session, to, as need be, authorize the extension of the state of urgency or of the state of siege for more than twenty (20) days.
When, following exceptional circumstances, the Parliament cannot sit, the President of the Republic can decide on the maintenance of the state of urgency or the state of siege. He informs the Nation of it through a message.
A law determines the conditions of implementation of the state of urgency or of the state of siege.
Article 158
The Government can, to execute its program, demand of the Parliament to vote [on] a law authorizing it to take, by ordinance, during a limited time period, the measures that are normally of the domain of the law.
This authorization is granted with the simple majority of the members of the Parliament. The demand indicates the matters in which the Government wishes that the ordinances be taken.
The ordinances are taken in the Council of Ministers, after the opinion of the Supreme Court. They enter [rentrent] into force from their publication but become lapsed if the bill of the law of ratification is not presented to the Parliament before the date established by the enabling law [loi d’habilitation].
When the demand for habilitation is rejected, the President of the Republic can, on [a]conforming decision of the Constitutional Court, legislate by ordinance.
At the expiration of the time period mentioned in this Article, the ordinances may only be modified by the law in their provisions that are of the legislative domain.
Article 159
The Prime Minister can, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, engage before the National Assembly the responsibility of the Government on its program, on a declaration of general policy or on a bill of [a] text.
The National Assembly, after [a] debate, emits a vote. Confidence may only be refused to the Government by a majority of two-thirds (2/3) of the Deputies composing the National Assembly.
When confidence is refused, the Prime Minister remits to the President of the Republic the resignation of the Government.
Article 160
The National Assembly can accuse the responsibility of the Prime Minister and of the other members of the Government by the vote of a motion of censure.
To be receivable, the motion of censure must be signed by at least one quarter (1/4) of the Deputies composing the National Assembly.
The debate and the vote of the motion of censure take place within the forty-eight (48) hours that follow its presentation before the National Assembly.
At the time of the vote, only the voices [voix] favorable to the motion of censure are taken into account.
The motion of censure is adopted by the majority of two-thirds (2/3) of the members composing the National Assembly.
The vote is individual.
The vote by proxy is authorized in the conditions established by the internal regulations of the National Assembly.
Article 161
When the motion of censure is adopted, the Prime Minister remits to the President of the Republic the resignation of the Government.
Article 162
The President of the Republic, after having declared the changes intervening in the National Assembly and after consultation with the Presidents of the Chambers of the Parliament and with the Prime Minister, can pronounce the dissolution of the National Assembly.
In this case, new legislative elections are organized in accordance with the texts in force.
Article 163
If the motion of censure is rejected, its signatories may not present another in the course of the same session.
Article 164
There may not be more than one motion of censure in the course of the same session.
During the year preceding the end of the legislature, no motion of censure may be presented.
Article 165
In the case of [a] persisting crises between the Government and the National Assembly rendering impossible the regular functioning of the institutions, the President of the Republic, after having informed the Presidents of the two Chambers and the Prime Minister, pronounces the dissolution of the National Assembly.
New elections are organized in accordance with the texts in force.
It may not proceed to any dissolution of the National Assembly in the course of the last year of the legislature.
