From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The French Senate 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 French 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 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 till 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 till 27 May 1974 (between the
death of President Georges Pompidou and the installation
of his elected successor President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing).
Presidents of
the Chamber of Peers, 1814-1848
Presidents of the
Senate, 1852-1940
Presidents
of the Council of the Republic, 1946-1958
Presidents of the
Senate, 1958-present
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