Constitutional Council (France)
The Constitutional Council is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958 and its duty is to ensure that constitutional principles and rules are upheld, it is housed in Paris. Its main activity is to rule on whether proposed statutes conform with the Constitution, after they have been voted by Parliament and before they are signed into law by the President of the French Republic. However, since 1 March 2010, individual citizens who are party to a trial or a lawsuit have been able to ask for the Council to review whether the law applied in the case is constitutional. In 1971, the Council ruled that conformity with the Constitution entails conformity with two other texts referred to in the preamble of the Constitution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the preamble of the constitution of the Fourth Republic, both of which list constitutional rights; this article refers extensively to individual articles in the Constitution of France.
The reader should refer to the official translation of the Constitution on the site of the French National Assembly. Another recommended reading is the Constitutional Council overview on the Council web site; the Government of France consists of an executive branch, a legislative branch, a judicial branch. The judicial branch is, unlike for instance the federal judiciary of the United States under the Supreme Court, not organized into a single hierarchy, some of its entities have advisory functions. For historical reasons there has long been a hostility to having anything resembling a "Supreme Court"—that is, a powerful court able to quash legislation. Whether the Council is a court is a subject of academic discussion, but some scholars consider it the supreme court of France; the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic distinguishes two distinct kinds of legislation: statute law, voted upon by Parliament and government regulations, which are enacted by the Prime Minister and his government as decrees and other regulations.
Article 34 of the Constitution exhaustively lists the areas reserved for statute law: these include, for instance, criminal law. Any regulation issued by the executive in the areas constitutionally reserved for statute law is unconstitutional unless it has been authorized as secondary legislation by a statute. Any citizen with an interest in the case can obtain the cancellation of these regulations by the Council of State, on grounds that the executive has exceeded its authority. Furthermore, the Council of State can quash regulations on grounds that they violate existing statute law, constitutional rights or the "general principles of law". In addition, new acts can be referred to the Constitutional Council by a petition just prior to being signed into law by the President of the Republic; the most common circumstance for this is that 60 opposition members of the National Assembly, or 60 opposition members of the Senate request such a review. If the Prime Minister thinks that some clauses of existing statute law instead belong to the domain of regulations, he can ask the Council to reclassify these clauses as regulations.
Traditionally, France refused to accept the idea that courts could quash legislation enacted by Parliament. This goes back to the French revolutionary era: pre-revolutionary courts had used their power not to register laws and thus prevent their application for political purposes, had blocked reforms. French courts were prohibited from making rulings of a general nature, it seemed that if courts could quash legislation after it had been enacted and taken into account by citizens, it would introduce legal uncertainties: how could a citizen plan his or her actions according to what is legal or not if laws could a posteriori be found not to hold? Yet, in the late 20th century, courts administrative courts, began applying the consequences of international treaties, including law of the European Union, as superior to national law. A 2009 reform, effective on 1 March 2010, enables parties to a lawsuit or trial to question the constitutionality of the law, being applied to them; the procedure, known as question prioritaire de constitutionnalité, is broadly as follows: the question is raised before the trial judge and, if it has merit, it is forwarded to the appropriate supreme court.
The supreme court submits them to the Constitutional Council. If the Constitutional Council rules a law to be unconstitutional, this law is struck down from the law books; the Council has two main areas of power: The first is the supervision of elections, both presidential and parliamentary and ensuring the legitimacy of referendums. They issue the official results, they ensure proper conduct and fairness, they see that campaign spending limits are adhered to; the Council is the supreme authority in these matters. The Council can declare an election to be invalid if improperly conducted, or if the elected candidate used illegal methods, or if he spent for his campaign over the legal limits; the second area of Council power is the interpretation of the fundamental
National Assembly (France)
The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate. The National Assembly's members are known as députés. There are 577 députés, each elected by a single-member constituency through a two-round voting system. Thus, 289 seats are required for a majority; the assembly is presided over by a president from the largest party represented, assisted by vice-presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The term of the National Assembly is five years; this measure is becoming rarer since the 2000 referendum reduced the presidential term from seven to five years: a President has a majority elected in the Assembly two months after the presidential election, it would be useless for him/her 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, the "right-wing" parties sit to the right, 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. It is guarded by Republican Guards; the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic increased the power of the executive at the expense of Parliament, compared to previous constitutions. 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 exercised; the last dissolution was by Jacques Chirac in 1997, following from the lack of popularity of prime minister Alain Juppé. The National Assembly can overthrow the executive government by a motion of no confidence. For this reason, the prime minister and his cabinet are 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. While motions de censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems inappropriate, they are purely rhetorical.
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, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the Assembly within a few days. The government 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 entirely set by the executive. This, 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, and the fourth one is set by the assembly. One day per month is set by a "minority" or "opposition" group. Members of the assembly can ask oral questions to ministers; the Wednesday afternoon 3 p.m. session of "questions to the Government" is broadcast live on television. Like Prime Minister's Questions in Britain, it is a show for the viewers, with members of the majority asking flattering questions, while the opposition tries to embarrass the government.
The history of national representation for two centuries is linked to history of the democratic principle and the uneven road that it had to go before finding in the French institutions the consecration, its own today. Although the French have periodically elected representatives since 1789, the mode of appointment and the powers of these representatives have varied according to the times, the periods of erasure of the parliamentary institution coinciding with a decline in public liberties. In this respect, the names are not innocent; the name of National Assembly, chosen in the fervor of 1789, just reappears - if we except the short parenthesis of 1848 - in 1946. In the meantime, more or less reductive appellations "Instituted by the Constitution of the year III in August 1795," Chamber of deputies of the departments "," House of Representatives "," Legislative body "," Chambers of deputies ", etc.) which show, to varying degrees, the reluctance or the declared hostility of some governments or governments to the principle
France–Africa relations
France–Africa relations cover a period of several centuries, starting around in the Middle Ages, have been influential to both regions. Following the invasion of Spain by the Berber Commander Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711, during the 8th century Arab and Berber armies invaded Southern France, as far as Poitiers and the Rhône valley as far as Avignon, Autun, until the turning point of the Battle of Tours in 732. Cultural exchanges followed. In the 10th century, the French monk Gerbert d'Aurillac, who became the first French Pope Sylvester II in 999, traveled to Spain to learn about Islamic culture, may have studied at the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco. France would become again threatened by the proximity of the expanding Moroccan Almoravid Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. According to some historians, French merchants from the Normandy cities of Dieppe and Rouen traded with the Gambia and Senegal coasts, with the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast, between 1364 and 1413; as a result, an ivory-carving industry developed in Dieppe after 1364.
These travels however were soon forgotten with the advent of the Hundred Years War in France. In 1402, the French adventurer Jean de Béthencourt left La Rochelle and sailed along the coast of Morocco to conquer the Canary islands. France signed a first treaty or Capitulation with the Mamluk Sultanate in 1500, during the rules of Louis XII and Sultan Bajazet II, in which the Sultan of Egypt had made concessions to the French and the Catalans. Important contacts between Francis I of France and the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent were initiated in 1526, leading to a Franco-Ottoman alliance, which soon created close contacts with the Barbary States of Northern Africa, which were becoming vassals of the Ottoman Empire; the first Ottoman embassy to France was the Ottoman embassy to France led by Hayreddin Barbarossa head of the Barbary States in Algiers. Suleiman ordered Barbarossa to put his fleet at the disposition of Francis I to attack Genoa and the Milanese. In July 1533 Francis received Ottoman representatives at Le Puy, he would dispatch in return Antonio Rincon to Barbarossa in North Africa and to the Asia Minor.
Various military actions were coordinated during the Italian War of 1551–1559. In 1551, the Ottomans, accompanied by the French ambassador Gabriel de Luez d'Aramon, succeeded in the Siege of Tripoli. In 1533, Francis I sent as ambassador to Morocco, colonel Pierre de Piton, thus initiating official France-Morocco relations. In a letter to Francis I dated August 13, 1533, the Wattassid ruler of Fes, Ahmed ben Mohammed, welcomed French overtures and granted freedom of shipping and protection of French traders. France started to send ships to Morocco in 1555, under the rule of Henry II, son of Francis I. France established a Consul in Fez, Morocco, as early as 1577, in the person of Guillaume Bérard, was the first European country to do so, he was succeeded by Arnoult de Lisle and Étienne Hubert d'Orléans in the position of physician and representative of France at the side of the Sultan. These contacts with France occurred during the landmark rules of Abd al-Malik and his successor, Moulay Ahmad al-Mansur.
In order to continue the exploration efforts of his predecessor Henry IV, Louis XIII considered a colonial venture in Morocco, sent a fleet under Isaac de Razilly in 1619. Razilly was able to reconnoiter the coast as far as Mogador. In 1624, he was put in charge of an embassy to the pirate harbour of Salé in Morocco, in order to solve the affair of the library of Mulay Zidan. In 1630, Razilly was able to negotiate the purchase of French slaves from the Moroccans, he visited Marocco again in 1631, participated to the negotiation of the Franco-Moroccan Treaty. The Treaty give France preferential treatment, known as Capitulations: preferential tariffs, the establishment of a Consulate and freedom of religion for French subjects. In 1659, France established the trading post of Senegal; the European powers continued contending for the island of Gorée, until in 1677, France led by Jean II d'Estrées during the Franco-Dutch War ended up in possession of the island, which it would keep for the next 300 years.
In 1758 the French settlement was captured by a British expedition as part of the Seven Years' War, but was returned to France in 1783. The French conquest of Algeria took place from 1830 to 1847, resulting in the establishment of Algeria as a French colony. Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey at Constantine in the east, nationalist forces in Kabylie and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under `Abd al-Qādir enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remaining Ottoman threat, achieved with the 1837 Capture of Constantine. Al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. Driven into Morocco in 1842 by large-scale and heavy-handed French military action, he continued to wage a guerilla war until Morocco, under French diplomatic pressure following its defeat in the First Franco-Moroccan War, drove him out of Morocco, he surrendered to French forces in 1847. France again showed a strong interest in Morocco in the 1830s, as a possible extension of her sphere of influence in the Maghreb, after Algeria and Tunisia.
The First Franco-Moroccan War took place in 1844, as a consequence of Morocco's alliance with Algeria's Abd-El-Kader against France. Following several incident at the border between Algeria and Morocco, the refusal of Morocco to abandon its support to Algeria, France faced Morocco victoriously in the Bombardment of Tangiers, the Battle of Isly, the Bombardment of Mogador; the war was formally ended September 10 with the signing of the Treaty of Tangiers, in
France–Americas relations
France–Americas relations started in the 16th century, soon after the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, have developed over a period of several centuries. In order to counterbalance the power of the Habsburg Empire under Charles V, its control of large parts of the New World through the Crown of Spain, Francis I endeavoured to develop contacts with the New World and Asia. In 1524, Francis I assisted the citizens of Lyon in financing the expedition of Giovanni da Verrazzano to North America. Verrazzano was an Italian in the service of the French crown; the objective was to find a passage to Cathay. Verrazzano was the first European since the Norse colonization of the Americas around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South and North Carolina and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay in 1524: in between, John Cabot had explored Labrador to the North, the Spanish had settled parts of Florida. On this expedition, Verrazzano claimed Newfoundland for the French crown.
In 1531, Bertrand d'Ornesan, Baron de Saint-Blancard tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco, Brazil. In 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier to explore the St. Lawrence River in Quebec to find "certain islands and lands where it is said he should find great quantities of gold and other rich things". In 1541, Francis sent Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval to settle Canada and to provide for the spread of "the Holy Catholic faith." Soon, the Huguenots, whose Reformist religions was in conflict with the French crown, attempted to colonize the New World to find a new ground for their religion and to contest the Catholic presence there. Huguenot pirates such as François le Clerc attacked Catholic shipping raiding New World harbours; the Huguenots raided Hispaniola in 1553, fighting against the Spanish Catholic presence there, followed by raid on Cuba. La Havana was seized by Jacques de Sores in 1555; the first attempts at colonization were made under Jean de Léry. After the short-lived establishment of France Antarctique in Brazil from 1555 to 1567, they had to abandon, resolved to make a stand back in France, centering on the city of La Rochelle for the organization of resistance.
The first French expedition to Florida occurred in 1562, composed of Protestants, was led by Jean Ribault and permitted the short-lived establishment of Fort Caroline, named after the French king Charles IX. These first attempts at Huguenot colonization would be taken over by Catholics, following the Huguenot repression in the French wars of religion. Towards the end of his reign Henry IV of France started to look at the possibility of ventures abroad, with both America and the Levant being among the possibilities. In 1604, the French explorer Samuel Champlain initiated the first important French involvement in Northern America, founding Port Royal as the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida in 1605, founding the first permanent French establishment at Quebec in 1608. In 1632, Isaac de Razilly became involved, at the request of Cardinal Richelieu, in the colonization of Acadia, by taking possession of the Habitation at Port-Royal and developing it into a French colony.
The King gave Razilly the official title of lieutenant-general for New France. He took on military tasks such as ordering the taking of control of Fort Pentagouet at Majabigwaduce on the Penobscot Bay, given to France in an earlier Treaty, to inform the English they were to vacate all lands North of Pemaquid; this resulted in all the French interests in Acadia being restored. Robert de La Salle departed from La Rochelle, France, on July 24, 1684, with the objective of setting up a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi establishing Fort Saint Louis in Texas; the French colonial drive increased in the 17th century, the "conquest of the souls" being an integral part of the constitution of Nouvelle-France, leading to the development of the Jesuit missions in North America. The efforts of the Jesuits in North America were paralleled by the Jesuit China missions on the other side of the world. In France, the Huguenots were defeated by Royal forces in the Siege of La Rochelle: Cardinal Richelieu blockaded the city for 14 months, until the city surrendered and lost its mayor and its privileges.
The growing persecution of the Huguenots culminated with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685. Many Huguenots emigrated, founding such cities as New Rochelle in the vicinity of today's New York in 1689. A colonizing party of 500 and a mission of four Franciscans were sent under a 1611 patent letter from the Regent Marie de Médicis; the colonial enterprise to found "France Équinoxiale" was led by Daniel de la Tousche, Sieur de la Ravardière, François de Razilly. The outpost would become the city of São Luís do Maranhão; the French arrived in the island in August 1612. One of the objectives of the mission was to establish trade in tobacco; when France and Spain became allied through the marriage of Louis XIII with Anne of Austria in 1615, support for the colony was discontinued and the colonists abandoned. The Portuguese soon managed to expel the French from the colony. In 1624, settlement along the South American coast in what is today French Guiana began; the French started to establish smaller but more profitable colonies in the West Indies.
A colony was founded on Saint Kitts in 1625, in sharing with the English until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, when it was occupied in its entirety. The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique founded colonies in Guadeloupe and Martinique in 1635, a colony wa
Wallis and Futuna
Wallis and Futuna the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji to the southwest, Tonga to the southeast, Samoa to the east, Tokelau to the northeast. Though both French and Polynesian and Futuna is distinct from the entity known as French Polynesia, its land area is 142.42 km2 with a population of 11,558 at the 2018 census. Mata-Utu is biggest city; the territory is made up of three main volcanic tropical islands along with a number of tiny islets, is split into two island groups that lie about 260 km apart, namely the Wallis Islands in the northeast, the Hoorn Islands in the southwest, including Futuna Island proper and the uninhabited Alofi Island. Since 2003, Wallis and Futuna has been a French overseas collectivity. Between 1961 and 2003, it had the status of a French overseas territory, though its official name did not change when the status changed. Polynesians settled the islands that would be called Wallis and Futuna around the year 1000 AD/CE, when the Tongan Empire expanded into the area.
The original inhabitants built forts and other identifiable ruins on the islands, some of which are still intact. Futuna was first put on the European maps by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire during their circumnavigation of the globe in 1616, they named the islands "Hoornse Eylanden" after the Dutch town of Hoorn. This was translated into French as "Isles de Horne." The French were the first Europeans to settle in the territory, with the arrival of French missionaries in 1837, who converted the population to Roman Catholicism. Pierre Chanel, canonized as a saint in 1954, is a major patron of the island of Futuna and the region; the Wallis Islands are named after the British explorer, Samuel Wallis, who sailed past them in 1767 after discovering Tahiti. On 5 April 1842, the missionaries asked for the protection of France after the rebellion of a part of the local population. On 5 April 1887, the Queen of Uvea signed a treaty establishing a French protectorate; the kings of Sigave and Alo on the islands of Futuna and Alofi signed a treaty establishing a French protectorate on 16 February 1888.
The islands were put under the authority of the French colony of New Caledonia. In 1917, the three traditional kingdoms were annexed to France and turned into the Colony of Wallis and Futuna, still under the authority of the Colony of New Caledonia. During World War II, the islands' administration was pro-Vichy until a Free French corvette from New Caledonia deposed the regime on 26 May 1942. Units of the US Marine Corps landed on Wallis on 29 May 1942. In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French overseas territory, effective in 1961, thus ending their subordination to New Caledonia. In 2005, the 50th King of Uvea, Tomasi Kulimoetoke II, faced being deposed after giving sanctuary to his grandson, convicted of manslaughter; the King claimed. There were riots in the streets involving the King's supporters, who were victorious over attempts to replace the King. Two years Tomasi Kulimoetoke died on 7 May 2007; the state was in a six-month period of mourning. During this period, mentioning a successor was forbidden.
On 25 July 2008, Kapiliele Faupala was installed as King despite protests from some of the royal clans. The territory is divided into three traditional kingdoms: Uvea, on the island of Wallis, Sigave, on the western part of the island of Futuna, Alo, on the eastern part of the island of Futuna and on the uninhabited island of Alofi: referred to the villages with municipal status called MuaThe capital of the collectivity is Matāʻutu on the island of Uvéa, the most populous of the Wallis Islands; as an overseas collectivity of France, it is governed under the French constitution of 28 September 1958, has universal suffrage for those over 18 years of age. The French president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term; the head of state is President Emmanuel Macron of France as represented by the Administrator-Superior Thierry Queffelec. The President of the Territorial Assembly is Petelo Hanisi since 11 December 2013; the Council of the Territory consists of three kings and three members appointed by the high administrator on the advice of the Territorial Assembly.
The legislative branch consists of the unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblée territoriale of 20 seats. Wallis and Futuna elect one senator to the French Senate and one deputy to the French National Assembly. Justice is administered under French law by a tribunal of the first instance in Mata-Utu, but the three traditional kingdoms administer justice according to customary law; the Court of Appeal is in New Caledonia. The territory participates in the Franc Zone, as a permanent member of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and as an observer of the Pacific Islands Forum. Wallis and Fut
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is a French politician serving as President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Minister of the Economy and Digital Affairs from 2014 to 2016. Macron was born in Amiens and studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, completed a Master's of Public Affairs at Sciences Po and graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 2004, he worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and became an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque. Macron was appointed Deputy Secretary General to the President by François Hollande in May 2012, he was appointed Minister of Economy and Digital Affairs in August 2014 under the Second Valls government, where he pushed through business-friendly reforms. He resigned in August 2016 to launch a bid in the 2017 presidential election. After being a member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, Macron ran in the election under the banner of a centrist political movement he founded in April 2016, En Marche!.
He won the election on 7 May 2017 with 66.1% of the vote in the second round. At age 39, Macron became the youngest President of France in history and appointed Édouard Philippe to be Prime Minister. In the June 2017 legislative elections, Macron's party, renamed "La République en marche", together with its ally the Democratic Movement, secured a majority in the National Assembly. Born in Amiens, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is the son of Françoise, a physician, Jean-Michel Macron, professor of neurology at the University of Picardy; the couple were divorced in 2010. Macron has two siblings, born in 1979 and Estelle, born in 1982. Françoise and Jean-Michel's first child was born stillborn. Raised in a non-religious family, he was baptized a Roman Catholic at his own request at age 12, although he is agnostic today; the Macron family legacy is traced back to the village of Authie in Hauts-de-France. One of Macron's paternal great-grandfathers, George William Robertson, was English, was born in Bristol, United Kingdom.
His maternal grandparents and Germaine Noguès, are from the Pyrenean town of Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Gascony. Macron visited Bagnères-de-Bigorre to visit his grandmother Germaine, whom he called "Manette". Macron associates his enjoyment of reading and his left-ward political leanings to Germaine, after coming from a modest upbringing of a stationmaster father and a housekeeping mother, became a teacher a principal, died in 2013. Macron was educated at the Jesuit Lycée la Providence in Amiens before his parents sent him to finish his last year of school at the elite Lycée Henri-IV in Paris, where he completed the high school curriculum and the undergraduate program with a "Bac S, Mention Très bien". At the same time he was nominated for the "Concours Général" in French literature and received his diploma for his piano studies at Amiens Conservatory, his parents sent him off to Paris due to their alarm at the bond he had formed with Brigitte Auzière, a married teacher with three children at Jésuites de la Providence, who became his wife.
In Paris, he failed to gain entry to the École normale supérieure twice. He instead studied Philosophy at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense, obtaining a DEA degree. Around 1999 Macron worked as an editorial assistant to Paul Ricoeur, the French Protestant philosopher, writing his last major work, La Mémoire, l'Histoire, l'Oubli. Macron worked on the notes and bibliography. Macron became a member of the editorial board of the literary magazine Esprit. Macron did not perform national service. Born in December 1977, he belonged to the last year. Macron obtained a master's degree in public affairs at the Sciences Po, majoring in "Public Guidance and Economy" before training for a senior civil service career at the selective École nationale d'administration, training at an embassy in Nigeria and in an office in Oise before graduating in 2004. After graduating from ENA in 2004, Macron became an Inspector in the Inspection générale des finances, a branch of the Finance Ministry. Macron was mentored by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the then-head of the IGF.
During his time as an Inspector of Finances, Macron gave lectures during the summer at the "prep'ENA" at IPESUP, an elite private school specializing in preparation for the entrance examinations of the Grandes écoles, such as HEC or Sciences Po. In 2006, Laurence Parisot offered him the job of managing director for Mouvement des Entreprises de France, the largest employer federation in France, but he declined. In August 2007, Macron was appointed deputy rapporteur for Jacques Attali's "Commission to Unleash French Growth". In 2008, Macron paid €50,000 to buy himself out of his government contract, he became an investment banker in a highly-paid position at Rothschild & Cie Banque. In March 2010, he was appointed to the Attali Commission as a member. In September 2008, Macron left his job as an Inspector of Finances and took a position at Rothschild & Cie Banque. Macron was inspired to leave the government due to the election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the presidency, he was offered the job by François Henrot.
His first responsibility at Rothschild & Cie Banque was assisting with the acquisition of Cofidis by Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe. Macron formed a relationship with a businessman on the supervisory board of Le Monde. In 2010, Macron
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
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