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The capital of France is Paris, its area measures 547,000 square kilometres, its population is made up of 60,185,831 inhabitants, the gross domestic product is 1,547.6 billions Euros; the inflation is 2.3%, the unemployment rate is 9.8%, the deficit is –3.7% and the National Debt is 64.9%. The Constitution adopted in September 1958 provided the French Republic with a form of Government called semi-presidential, characterized by the so-called double-headed executive. It means both the President of Republic and the Prime Minister co-ordinate and lead the executive activities. The political and institutional system of the 5th Republic provides for a Chamber of Deputies, the National Assembly made up of 577 members, elected every five years by the whole population, with a typical French majority election system; a Senate made up of 321 members elected every 9 years by indirect suffrage. The Head of the State is the President of Republic who, after a new constitutional reform, is elected every 5 years, before they were 7, by direct universal suffrage. The constitution ascribes a relevant authority in the field of foreign and defence policy. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Republic, but he is also linked to the President of Republic and to the National Assembly by a trust relationship. The present President of Republic is Jacques Chirac, elected in 2002 and he is at his second presidential mandate, for he won the ballotage against the extreme rightist Jean Marie Le Pen. The present Prime Minister is Dominique de Villepin. Between April and June 2002 either the presidential and the legislative elections took place. In the presidential elections, as we said, the retiring president Chirac get trust for another mandate, whereas in the following legislative elections, the centre-rigth, reassembled around only one great party, the Union for a Popular Movement, get the absolute majority of the National Assembly members, so warranting a large parliamentary basis to the President of Republic and to the Government, and so putting an end to the co-habitation of the last five years, when a centre-rightist President cohabited with a centre-leftist parliamentary majority. In May 2005 an important referendum took place: it rejected the constitutional treaty of the Union with the 70% of affluence to the polls and almost the 55% of votes against the constitutional treaty. After this referendum, the Prime Minister Raffarin resigned and the President of Republic appointed Dominique de Villepin Prime Minister. The UMP President, Nicholas Sarkosy is part of the same Government with the role of Ministry of the Interior. France is one of the 6 founding countries of the European Union. After the enlargement the number of the seats available for France decreased from 87 to 78. The French metropolitan territory is divided into 7 districts, while the 8th district, which elects three deputies, gathers the overseas departments, groups and territories. In France they voted for the European Elections on the 13th June 2004. The affluence to the polls was quite law, less then the 43% of the voters, with a decrease of 4% compared to ’99. In the European elections the Socialist Party get the highest number of votes, almost the 29% and 31 euro-deputies who joined the European Socialist Party, while the UDF, the other centre-rightist party, reached the 12% and get 12 deputies, who joined the Alliance of Democratics and Liberals for Europe. The Left altogether gained 40 out of the 78 French euro-deputies: 31 Socialists, 6 Greens, 2 from the French Communist Party and 1 from the Lefts Union. The republican Right get on the whole 31 deputies, whereas Le Pen’s Popular Front touched the 10% of the votes and gained 7 deputies. Within the present European Commission driven by Barroso, the French Commissary is Jacques Barrot, transportation Commissary and Vice-President of the Commission.
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