The Congress at Versailles passed the constitutional amendments that I referred to in the previous post. The vote was tight. In fact, the bill was passed by just one vote more than the necessary three-fifths majority. Jack Lang, a well-known former minister and leading socialist, voted for the reform. Given the vote broke down along largely partisan lines (especially on the left), he has been blamed within the socialist camp for helping to pass a reform that, they say, will reinforce President Sarkozy’s vision of the presidency.

It is certainly true that President Sarkozy was personally associated with the reform. However, Sarkozy is on record as saying he favours a system in which the president can govern. This can be interpreted as saying that he favours a US-style presidential system. This is system that his prime minister, François Fillon, publicly supported last year. It is also supported by former prime minister Edouard Balladur, who was the author of the report on which the constitutional amendments were based (though it avoided the issue of presidentialism, parliamentarism or semi-presidentialism).

In total, the reforms that were eventually passed help to provide some extra powers for parliament, as well as some other checks and balances. With the exception of the president’s ability to speak before the legislature now, the president’s powers are not increased. In theory, therefore, Sarkozy should now find it more difficult to govern as he wishes. All the same, he proposed the bill as part of a more general desire on his part to see a ‘modernisation’ of French institutions. This desire for modernisation raises the prospect of future reforms, especially if Sarkozy is re-elected for a second term in 2012.