Country Profile
France officially the French Republic is a Unitary Semi-Presidential Democratic Republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
France is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest "Exclusive Economic Zone'' ( a seazone over which a country has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources)in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq miles), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq miles).
France is divided into 27 administrative regions - 22 in Metropolitan France and 5 in Overseas Regions.
France is one of the Founding Member of the UN
France is one of the 5 Permanent Members of UNSC
France is also a Founding Member of EU and the largest by area
France is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually
France has been listed as the world's "best overall health care" provider by the WHO
Capital Paris
Currency Euro
Population 65 Million ( 2011 Estimate )
Official Language French
Government
France is a Semi-Presidential Representative Democratic Republic in which the President of France is Head of State and the Prime Minister of France is Head of the govt. and there is multi-party system.
Since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other.
Executive Power is exercised by the Govt.Legislative Power is vested in the Govt,Senate and National Assembly.The Judiciary is Independent of the Executive and the Legislature.
Parliament of France
The French Parliament is Bicameral comprising -
National Assembly(Lower House)
The National Assembly's members are known as députés .There are 577 députés, each elected by a single-member constituency through a two-rounds system. 289 seats are therefore required for a majority.The term of the National Assembly is five years.However, the President of the Republic may dissolve the Assembly (thereby calling for new elections)
Senate(Upper House)
Until September 2004, the Senate had 321 senators, each elected to a nine-year term. That month, the term was reduced to six years, while the number of senators progressively increased to 348 in 2011, in order to reflect changes in the country's demographics.Senators were elected in thirds every three years; this was also changed to one-half of their number every three years.
The Senate is housed inside the Luxembourg Palace.
French National Assembly Elections - June 17,2007
The French Legislative Elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly.The details of the results are -
Party No of Seats Won
UMP 313
New Centre 22
Miscellaneous Right 9
Movement for France 1
Total (A) 345
Socialist Party 186
French Communist Party 15
Miscellaneous Left 15
Left Radical Party 7
The Greens 4
Total (B) 227
Others (C) 5
Total (A+B+C) 577
Prime Minister of France
François Charles Armand Fillon (UMP) is the current PM in office from May 17,2007
President of France
Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) is the 23rd and current President in office from May 17,2007 after defeating Marie-Ségolène Royal (Socialist Party)who got only 47%(Nicolas Sarkozy got 53% Votes) Votes in the French Presidential Elections held on May 6,2007
2012 French Presidential Elections
2012 French presidential election is to be held on April 22 and May 6, 2012, the latter being used for a run-ff if necessary.
President Nicolas Sarkozy(elected as French President in 2007) eligible to run for a 2nd successive and final term during this election.
President Nicolas Sarkozy declares bid for Re-Election
Nicolas Sarkozy has formally declared that he will run for a second term as president of France on Wednesday Feb 15,2012 when he appeared live on the evening news of the private TV channel TF1 to kick off a difficult re-election battle, saying not to run would be like a captain abandoning his ship in a storm.
Political Parties in France
1)Union for a Popular Movement(UMP) is a centre right political party in France and its current leader is Nicolas Sarkozy and one of the 2 major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party.The UMP was founded in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under President Jacques Chirac.
2)Socialist Party(PS) is a social democratic political party in France .The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate when Francois Mitterrand was elected French President in 1981
Socialist Party Primary - Oct 2011
Francois Hollande (1st secretary of SP from 1997 -2008) won the primary defeating
3)National Front(FN)The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far -right currents of the time.The FN has established itself as the third largest political force in France after UMP and SP.The 2002 Presidential Election was the first ever in France to include a far-right candidate in the run-off, as Le Pen beat the socialist candidate in the first round. In the run-off, Le Pen nevertheless finished a distant second to Jacques Chirac.
Jean Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011 .
The current leader of the party is Marine Le Pen who took over from her father in 2011.
4) French Green Party
Member of European Parliament(MEP) and former Magistrate Eva Joly is the candidate for the French Green Party.
5) Democratic Movement(France)
Francois Bayrou President of MoDem and MP has confirmed his candidacy on Aug 22,2011
Qualification for the First Ballot
To qualify for the first ballot for President, a candidate must collect the signatures of at least five hundred elected representatives among a total of more than 47,000 : these can be mayors, general councillors, regional councillors, deputies, senators, members of the European Parliament elected in FranceThousands rally to support far-left French Presidential Candidate
Tens of thousands of French voters flooded the streets around Paris’ Bastille monument on Sunday March 18,2012 to support Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the Left Front who is playing an increasingly important role in the country’s presidential election .
10 Candidates Approved for French Presidential Election
A total of 10 politicians have been confirmed as candidates in the French presidential election on April 22,2012.
The conservative sitting President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is tipped to go into a run-off with the Socialist, Francois Hollande, on 6 May.
While Francois Hollande remains favourite to win in opinion polls, the gap between the two men has narrowed.
National Front leader Marine Le Pen is placed third by the same polls.
Other strong challengers in the first round are -
veteran centrist, Francois Bayrou and
the radical left's Jean-Luc Melenchon
The other 5 candidates registered by France's constitutional court are -
1) Eva Joly
2) Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
3) Nathalie Arthaud
4)Philippe Poutou and
5)Jacques Cheminade
Toulouse School Shooting - Monday March 19,2012
Four people, including a father and his two sons and another child, were killed at the Toulouse school on Monday. Reuters reported that French police were linking the attack with the shooting of the soldiers in Toulouse and nearby Montauba.
The adult victim in the most recent shooting was thought to be a rabbi who taught at the school, who died with his three-year-old and six-year-old sons. The fourth victim, aged between eight and 10 years old, was the school principal's daughter .
A gun used in a shooting at a Jewish school in south-west France was the same weapon used in the shooting dead of three French soldiers last week.The soldiers who were shot were of north African and Caribbean origin. Two of them were Muslims.Three members of a parachute regiment were shot in broad daylight as they stood by a cashpoint in Montauban, 28 miles (46km) north of Toulouse, on Thursday March 15,2012 afternoon. Abel Chennouf, 26, and Mohamed Legouard, 24, died on the spot. A third soldier is in a critical condition in hospital.
Sarkozy, who is currently on the election trail, cancelled all appointments and visited the site of the shootings on Monday. He called them an "abominable drama" and a "frightening tragedy".
French Police Surround House and Corner Suspect in early swoop
Armed police exchanged shots with Merah, who is refusing to surrender, after descending on the house in Toulouse at 3am. His brother was arrested at a separate location.
A police source said the man barricaded inside an apartment surrounded by armed police is Mohammed Merah, 24, a Frenchman of Algerian origin.
He has previously been arrested on a matter of common law in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban, a police source said.
The self-declared al Qaeda jihadist has declared he will surrender later today, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.
French police are engagaged in a stand-off with Merah, who is suspected of killing three children, a teacher and three soldiers, after swooping on a house in an early morning raid.Inhabitants from the area, including the five-storey block of flats, have been evacuated.The authorities appear to be opting for a waiting game - they have said they want the gunman alive.
The funerals for the four people killed in Monday's shooting at the Jewish school were held in Jerusalem on Wednesday March 21,2012, amid emotional scenes
French gunman siege enters day 2
In a drama gripping France five weeks before a presidential election, some 300 police have laid siege since Wednesday March 21,2012 to the five-storey house in a suburb of the prosperous industrial town in a bid to capture the shooter, Mohamed Merah.
France's elite RAID commando unit detonated three explosions just before midnight on Wednesday, flattening the main door of the building and blowing a hole in the wall, after it became clear Merah did not mean to keep a promise to turn himself in.
Another explosion and several gunshots were heard in the early hours of Thursday March 22,2012 morning .
Mohamed Merah killed as Siege Ends
Mohamed Merah,a 23-year-old gunman who said al Qaeda inspired him to kill seven people in France died in a hail of bullets on Thursday March 22,2012 as he scrambled out of a ground-floor window during a gunbattle with elite police commandos
Merah burst out of his bathroom firing a gun when an elite police squad entered the flat at around 11:30am. He fired at least 30 rounds of rapid ammunition at police, then jumped out of a window while still shooting at officers. He was shot by a sniper and appeared to have died from a bullet to the head.
French Presidential Elections - First Round Sunday April 22,2012
Francois Hollande Votes
Eva Joly Votes
Francois Hollande has moved a step closer to becoming the first Socialist president of France in a generation by beating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, in the first round of elections
Unconfirmed results showed Hollande – a former Socialist party leader, rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal – with a clear lead at more than 28%, compared with Sarkozy on 27% and Front National's Le Pen, came third with around 18% of the vote.
French Presidential Election - First Round Results
French Socialist candidate Francois Hollande was confirmed the winner of the first round of the country’s presidential election, with 28.63 % of the vote
against 27.18 % for incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday April 23,2012
Far right National Front leader Marine Le Pen came third in Sunday’s vote, with 17.9 %
In fourth place came radical Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Mnchon with 11.11 % and
Centrist MoDem candidate Francois Bayrou, who polled 9.13 % got the fifth place
Voter turnout was 79.47 %
François Hollande Wins French Presidential Election
Francois Hollande(57)self-styled Mr Normal is France's first leftwing president in almost 20 years. Projections from early counts, released by French TV, put his score at 51.9%.
Nicolas Sarkozy defeated after one term in office, became the 11th European leader to lose power since the economic crisis in 2008.Francois Hollande will become the first socialist to occupy the Elysée Palace for 17 years.Francois Hollande’s win ends a long and painful wait for the Socialist party which last saw a presidential victory in 1988 when François Mitterrand won a second term in office(was president from 1981 to 1995)
Turnout in Sunday May 06,2012 Run-off was expected to be slightly higher than the 79.5 per cent during the first round vote on April 22, when Francois Hollande came top.In France, with 95 % of the vote counted, official results showed Mr. Hollande with 51.6 % of the vote compared with Mr. Sarkozy’s 48.4 %, the Interior Ministry said. The turnout was a strong 81%.
Francois Hollande Sworn as President of France
Francois Hollande France's 1st Socialist leader in nearly 20 years, promised to restore dignity and simplicity to the French presidency as he took power in a deliberately low-key ceremony on Tuesday May 15,2012
Valerie Trierweiler, companion of France's President-elect Francois Hollande
Jean-Marc Ayrault Named France's New Prime Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault(62)a former German teacher and an MP and Mayor of the North-Western City of Nantes has been appointed Prime Minister(succeeding Francois Fillon) by the new French President Francois Hollande
Jean-MarcAyrault (right) shook hands with Francois Fillon outside the Matignon Palace
French government presents “toughest budget in 30 years”
President Francois Hollande and the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, had stressed prior to what they described as a "combat" budget their aim to reduce France's public deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013, in line with its EU commitments(The deficit is around 4.5% of GDP in 2012)
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