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The National Assembly (; ) is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate (''"Sénat"''). The National Assembly's members are known as ''députés'' ((:depyˈte); "delegate" or "envoy" in English; the word is an etymological cognate of the English word "deputy", usually "''adjoint''" in French). There are 577 ''députés'', each elected by a single-member constituency through a two-round voting system. 289 seats are therefore required for a majority. The assembly is presided over by a president (currently Claude Bartolone), normally from the largest party represented, assisted by vice-presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The term of the National Assembly is five years; however, the President of the Republic may dissolve the Assembly (thereby calling for new elections) unless he has dissolved it in the preceding twelve months. This measure is becoming rarer since the 2000 referendum reduced the presidential term from seven to five years: a President usually has a majority elected in the Assembly two months after him, and it would be useless for him to dissolve it for those reasons. Following a tradition started by the first National Assembly during the French Revolution, the "left-wing" parties sit to the left as seen from the president's seat, and the "right-wing" parties sit to the right, and the seating arrangement thus directly indicates the political spectrum as represented in the Assembly. The official seat of the National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon on the banks of the river Seine (); the Assembly also uses other neighbouring buildings, including the ''Immeuble Chaban-Delmas'' on the rue de l'Université (). It is guarded by Republican Guards. ==Relationships with the executive== The Constitution of the French Fifth Republic greatly increased the power of the executive at the expense of Parliament, compared to previous constitutions (Third and Fourth Republics).〔William G. Andrews, ''(The Constitutional Prescription of Parliamentary Procedures in Gaullist France )'', Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Aug. 1978), pp. 465–506〕 The President of the Republic can decide to dissolve the National Assembly and call for new legislative elections. This is meant as a way to resolve stalemates where the Assembly cannot decide on a clear political direction. This possibility is seldom exercised. The last dissolution was by Jacques Chirac in 1997, following from the lack of popularity of prime minister Alain Juppé; however, the plan backfired, and the newly elected majority was opposed to Chirac. The National Assembly can overthrow the executive government (that is, the Prime Minister and other ministers) by a vote of no-confidence (''motion de censure''). For this reason, the prime minister and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president and assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as ''cohabitation''; this situation, which has occurred three times (twice under Mitterrand, once under Chirac), is likely to be rarer now that presidential and assembly terms are the same length. While ''motions de censure'' are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, they are purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the government is never overthrown by the Assembly.〔(La motion de censure : véritable moyen de contrôle ? )〕 Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, there has only been one single successful ''motion de censure'', in 1962 in hostility to the referendum on the method of election of the President,〔Proceedings of the National Assembly, (4 October 1962 ), second sitting; vote tally on p. 3268. p. 38 in the PDF file〕 and president Charles de Gaulle dissolved the Assembly within a few days.〔(Decree of 9 October 1962 )〕 The Government (the Prime Minister and the Minister of relationships with Parliament) used to set the priorities of the agenda for the Assembly's sessions, except for a single day each month. In practice, given the number of priority items, it meant that the schedule of the Assembly was almost entirely set by the executive; bills generally only have a chance to be examined if proposed or supported by the executive. This, however, was amended on 23 July 2008. Under the amended constitution, the Government sets the priorities for two weeks in a month. Another week is designated for the Assembly's "control" prerogatives (consisting mainly of verbal questions addressed to the government). And the fourth one is set by the Assembly. Also, one day per month is set by a "minority" (group supporting the government but which is not the biggest group) or "opposition" (group having officially declared it did not support the government) group. Members of the assembly can ask written or oral questions to ministers. The Wednesday afternoon 3pm session of "questions to the Government" is broadcast live on television. Like prime minister's questions in Britain, it is largely a show for the viewers, with members of the majority asking flattering questions, while the opposition tries to embarrass the government.〔Anne-Laure Nicot, ''(La démocratie en questions. L’usage stratégique de démocratie et de ses dérivés dans les questions au gouvernement de la 11e Législature )'', Mots. Les langages du politique, E.N.S. Editions, n° 83 2007/1, pp. 9 à 21〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Assembly (France)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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