No, Gabriel Attal’s government has not (yet) broken the record for longevity of resigning governments

Gabriel Attal’s government has been in resignation for 45 days, but it has still not broken the record for the longevity of a resigning government, contrary to what has been said by several politicians and even specialists.

This is an observation that came up often in political interviews the week of Saturday, August 24. That day, the resigning government of Gabriel Attal was going to, according to several observers, beat the longevity record of resigning governments of the Fourth and Fifth Republics. The president of the La France insoumise group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, spoke about it in an interview with LCI. The New Popular Front MP Alexis Corbière also denounced it on franceinfo. But it is not so certain.

🔴 LIVE – 🗣 “We have a resigning government that continues to act and is now preparing a budget when there is nothing more political.”

NFP MP Alexis Corbière discusses Gabriel Attal’s renewal of the 2024 budget for the 2025 financial year. pic.twitter.com/gtohS9AigF

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) August 21, 2024

Their opinion is shared by specialists. Nicolas Hervieu, a lecturer in public and European law at Sciences-Po and the University of Evry, thus declared on X, two days before August 24, that“in law, a record will be broken this Saturday: since July 16, 39 days of persistence of a resigning government”Several media outlets also reported on the breaking of this record, such as the newspaper The World.

In law, a record will be broken this Saturday:

Since July 16, 39 days of persistence of a resigned government.

So 39 days of “day-to-day business management”.

Politically, the Prime Minister even presented his resignation on July 8. 45 days ago… https://t.co/EYzf52gQrs pic.twitter.com/xBpSE4gPbk

— Nicolas Hervieu (@N_Hervieu) August 22, 2024

According to their calculations, the resigning government that remained in office the longest between the acceptance of its resignation by the President of the Republic and the appointment of the next government was that of René Mayer, from 21 May to 28 June 1953, or 38 days, under the Fourth Republic. Still according to them, under the Fifth Republic, the record is only nine days: the government of Georges Pompidou dealt with current affairs from 28 November to 7 December 1962.

But what really happened in 1962 is forgotten. On October 5, the National Assembly adopted a motion of censure against the government of Georges Pompidou. The next day, the Prime Minister presented his resignation to the President of the Republic, as provided for in the Constitution, but Charles de Gaulle refused it.

It is this refusal that throws the interpretations into confusion. Some believe that the Pompidou government had not yet resigned since the resignation was not accepted. Except that the Council of State has judged otherwise. In several decisions taken in the 1960s, it noted that the Pompidou government had indeed resigned since the motion of censure had withdrawn its full powers.

On October 19, 1962, the Council of State examined the petition of a certain Mr. Brocas who accused the government of abuse of power because it had issued two decrees after the motion of censure. The debate focused on the status of the government: did it have the right to issue these decrees? Had it resigned or not?

In his judgment – which is not available on the internet but which was consulted by franceinfo and which The World at the time was echoed – the Council of State wrote that it “results that the adoption by the National Assembly of a motion of censure leads to the withdrawal of the Prime Minister and his government” and that “according to a traditional principle of public law, the resigning government retains jurisdiction, until the President of the Republic has provided for its replacement by an official decision, to proceed with the dispatch of current affairs”.

The Council of State repeated this a few years later, on April 22, 1966, in another decision which again concerned a decree issued by the government after the vote on the motion of censure. The decision is summarized as follows on the legifrance website: “On October 9, 1962, the government, whose responsibility had been called into question on the previous October 5 by way of a motion of censure, resigned. [bien que la dissolution de l’Assemblée ait été prononcée le jour même] and had the power to deal with current affairs.”

“This is a specific, exceptional case.explains the professor of public law at Toulouse 1 Capitole University, Mathieu Carpentier, to franceinfo. The standard case is that the government is only considered to have resigned from the day the President of the Republic accepts its resignation, that is to say issues the decree ending the functions of the government. The case of the adoption of a motion of censure is a special case. The government has an obligation to resign. The President of the Republic can refuse the resignation, it changes nothing.”

However, the Pompidou government remained in place for 62 days after the adoption of the motion of censure and its resignation. The absolute record for the longevity of a resigning government is therefore not 9 or 38 days, but 62. That is 17 days more than the resigning government of Gabriel Attal, which has been managing current affairs for 45 days as of this Thursday, August 29.