Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by eshowk 4079 days ago
In the constitution of the 5th republic, there is no quorum rule nor a "recall" referendum at mid-term nor a prohibition of multi tenures. That's why we need to change to basic rules of the institutions. We need rules to avoid such democratic thefts in the future, rules written by the people, not the politics professionals. This is what citizen groups like "Mouvement pour la 6eme République" advocates for (http://www.m6r.fr).
2 comments
talideon 4078 days ago
Even where there's no constitutional requirement to have a quorum for votes, it's still possible to have a rule of order requiring a quorum before a vote can take place.

Ireland is an example of this: for there to be a quorum in either house, at least twenty members have to be present. This means at least 1/3 of the Seanad (upper house, 60 seats) or 12% of the Dáil (lower house, 166 seats) must be present for either to form a quorum. That's not written in the constitution, but a standing order of the Oireachtas (parliament).

Even if France has no such requirement in its constitution, it's ridiculous that there isn't at least a parliamentary rule of order requiring it.

link
deciplex 4078 days ago
How's the constitution for the 6th one coming along?
link
eshowk 4078 days ago
Many ideas are gaining traction with these events : prohibiton of pultiple-tenure, quorum rule everywhere, "recall" referendum for every elected, a constition elected by non professional politics and prohibited to participate to any further election, etc...

The movement M6R's got ~85K signatures, and a grass-roots assembly with ~180 members, transparent auto-financing, but it still need to get much bigger in order to make the change of constitution the big main issue in the next presidential race in 2017. After 2017 I don't know, but changing the constitution, getting back democracy has to be in "every mouth" from now on.

link
hmsln 4078 days ago
It's not. There is some talk of a Sixth Republic during the presidential campaigns, generally from far-right or far-left parties, but the two main moderate parties do not want to hear about it.

French political life is characterized by a complete lack of impetus for change.

link