Gérard Larcher, who has been President of the Senate since 2014, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2011, escorted by Republican Guards.
The Senate of France is the upper house of the French Parliament. It is presided over by a president. Although there had been Senates in both the First and Second Empires, these had not technically been legislative bodies, but rather advisory bodies on the model of the Roman Senate. France's first experience with an upper house was under the Directory from 1795 to 1799, when the Council of Ancients was the upper chamber. With the Restoration in 1814, a new Chamber of Peers was created, on the model of the British House of Lords. At first it contained hereditary peers, but following the July Revolution of 1830, it became a body to which one was appointed for life. The Second Republic returned to a unicameral system after 1848, but soon after the establishment of the Second Empire in 1852, a Senate was established as the upper chamber. In the Fourth Republic, the Senate was renamed the Council of the Republic, but its function was largely the same. With the new constitution of the Fifth Republic in 1959, the older name of Senate was restored.
The Senate is the upper house of the French Parliament. Indirectly elected by elected officials, it represents territorial collectivities of the Republic and French citizens living abroad. The Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly; debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally receive less media coverage.
An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted power than the lower house. Examples of upper houses in countries include the Australian Senate, Brazil's Senado Federal, the Canadian Senate, France's Sénat, Germany's Bundesrat, India's Rajya Sabha, Ireland's Seanad, Malaysia's Dewan Negara, the Netherlands' Eerste Kamer, Pakistan's Senate of Pakistan, Russia's Federation Council, Switzerland's Council of States, United Kingdom's House of Lords and the United States Senate.
The French Parliament is the bicameral legislature of the French Republic, consisting of the Senate (Sénat) and the National Assembly. Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at a separate location in Paris: the Palais du Luxembourg for the Senate and the Palais Bourbon for the National Assembly.
The President of the Senate, in addition to his duties as presiding officer of the upper house of parliament, is also, according to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, first in line of succession in case of death or resignation of the president, thus becoming Acting President of the Republic until a new election can be held. This has already occurred twice. Alain Poher, the President of the French Senate, served as Acting President of France from 28 April until 20 June 1969 (between the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle and the installation of his elected successor President Georges Pompidou) and again from 3 April until 27 May 1974 (between the death of President Georges Pompidou and the installation of his elected successor President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing).
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and replaced that of the Fourth Republic dating from 1946. Charles de Gaulle was the main driving force in introducing the new constitution and inaugurating the Fifth Republic, while the text was drafted by Michel Debré. Since then the constitution has been amended twenty-four times, through 2008.
Alain Émile Louis Marie Poher was a French centrist politician, affiliated first with the Popular Republican Movement and later with the Democratic Centre. He served as a Senator for Val-de-Marne from 1946 to 1995. He was President of the Senate from 3 October 1968 to 1 October 1992 and, in that capacity, served twice as the country's interim president. A leading candidate in the 1969 presidential election, he was defeated by Georges Pompidou in the second round.
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led the French Resistance against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to establish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President René Coty. He was asked to rewrite the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position he was reelected to in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the early part of the Cold War era, and his memory continues to influence French politics.
The Radical-Socialist and Radical Republican Party was a liberal and formerly social-liberal political party in France. It was also often referred to simply as the Radical Party, or to prevent confusion with other French Radical parties as the Parti radical valoisien, abbreviated to Rad, PR, or PRV.
Democratic Centre was a Christian-democratic and centrist political party in France. The party existed from 1966 until 1976, when it merged with Centre, Democracy and Progress (CDP) to form the Centre of Social Democrats (CDS). The party's long-time leader was Jean Lecanuet.
The Centre of Social Democrats was a Christian-democratic and centrist political party in France. It existed from 1976 to 1995 and was based directly and indirectly on the tradition of the Popular Republican Movement (MRP). The CDS was one of the co-founding parties of the European People's Party, and later merged into the Democratic Force.
The Politics of Burkina Faso takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of Burkina Faso is the head of state. Executive power is exercised by both the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The party system was dominated by the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) until the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. Since then, the CDP has lost influence. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Burkina Faso as a "hybrid regime" in 2016.
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official. It does not mean removal from office; it is only a statement of charges, akin to an indictment in criminal law. Once an individual is impeached, he or she must then face the possibility of conviction by a legislative vote, which judgment entails removal from office.
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this category includes specifically members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title. Member of Congress is an equivalent term in other jurisdictions.
The President of the Senate is often given to the presiding officer of a senate, and is the speaker of other assemblies.
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
In parliamentary and some semi-presidential systems, a dissolution of parliament is the dispersal of a legislature at the call of an election.
The National Congress of Brazil is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike the state Legislative Assemblies and Municipal Chambers, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Congress meets annually in Brasília, from 2 February to 27 July and from 1 August to 22 December.
The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861) and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946). It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members and a small number of unelected members (parlamentari). The Italian Parliament is composed of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic. The two houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution of Italy.
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and in that role represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The President's term of office lasts for seven years. The 11th President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was elected on 10 May 2006 and elected to a second term for the first time in Italian Republic history on 20 April 2013. Following Napolitano's resignation, the incumbent President, former Constitutional judge Sergio Mattarella, was elected at the fourth ballot with 665 votes out of 1,009 on 31 January 2015.
The Louisiana State Senate is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All senators serve four-year terms and are assigned multiple committees to work on. The current Senate President John Alario from Westwego.
The Speaker of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the presiding officer of the chamber. The current Speaker of the Parliament is Karu Jayasuriya, in office since 1 September 2015. The Speaker fulfills a number of important functions in relation to the operation the House, which is based upon the British Westminster Parliamentary system.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania is the deputy elected to preside over the meetings in the lower chamber of the Parliament of Romania. The President is also the President of the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies, and the second in the presidential line of succession, after the President of the Senate.
The Greek Senate was the upper chamber of the parliament in Greece, extant several times in the country's history.
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Cameroon.
The President of the Louisiana State Senate is the highest-ranking member of the Louisiana State Senate. As presiding officer, he or she convenes session and calls members to order, but can designate another state senator to preside in his or her place.
The Senate of the Ottoman Empire was the upper house of the parliament of the Ottoman Empire, the General Assembly. Its members were appointed notables in the Ottoman government who, along with the elected lower house Chamber of Deputies, made up the General Assembly. It was created in its first incarnation according to the Ottoman constitution of 1876, which sought to reform the Ottoman Empire into a constitutional monarchy.
The Senate was the upper house of the Parliament of Portugal during the periods of validity of the Constitution of 1838 (1838-1842) and of the Constitution of 1911 (1911-1933).
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