Sarkozy proposes reworking French constitution

Epinal (France), July 13: President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a reform of France's constitution and announced he would set up a commission to study ways to modernise rather than revolutionise the French state.

Repeatedly evoking the spirit of former President Charles de Gaulle, Sarkozy said yesterday he wanted to see a strong presidency, with solid checks and balances put in place to insure France's institutions were ''irreproachable''.

There is sometimes confusion in France over the division of powers between the president, prime minister and parliament, but Sarkozy said he believed the head of state should predominate.

''I want the president to govern and be held more to account,'' he said in a speech in this northeastern town, where 61 years ago de Gaulle also delivered a keynote speech demanding that the presidency be handed more powers.

Months later, voters rejected his proposals in a referendum and the project was not realised for another decade.

To boost accountability, Sarkozy said presidents should address parliament ''at least once a year'' and added that famously opaque presidential spending should be scrutinised by the national state auditor.

Sarkozy said a commission of politicians and experts, led by his close ally, former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, would report back with precise proposals by November 1.

He said he hoped leading leftists would also take part despite an edict from the opposition Socialists warning that members would be suspended from the party if they cooperated.

Socialist leaders say the reform should be discussed by a parliamentary commission and warn that they will use their blocking powers if they disagree with the final outcome.

Republican Monarchy

Sarkozy made clear he did not want to establish a new political order in France, but said the existing institutions of the 49-year-old Fifth Republic needed adapting to a new world.

''I would not add institutional uncertainty to the social and identity crisis that is troubling our nation. I wouldn't change the main equilibrium of our institutions. I wouldn't turn the page on the Fifth Republic,'' he said.

The Fifth Republic, created during the Algerian colonial war that paralysed the Fourth Republic's parliamentary system, is a ''republican monarchy'' based on a powerful presidency, a submissive legislature and a centralised state.

But former Presidents Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac developed the habit of placing their prime ministers in the front line, sacking their governments if things went wrong rather than taking the blame themselves.

Sarkozy pledged that from now on he would be answerable if things went wrong and said trust had to be rebuilt between the French people and the political elite.

He rejected suggestions that France should adopt a US-style presidency, saying it was important for him to represent the whole nation rather than one political faction.

''I think France is not ready for this evolution,'' he said.

However, as in the United States, he proposed allowing presidents to serve just two mandates. French heads of state can currently serve indefinitely.

''I think that the energy one puts into lasting a long time is not put into doing things. I was elected to do things, not to last a long time,'' he told his audience.

Reuters>