City council (France)
In France, a municipal council (French: conseil municipal) is an elected body of the commune responsible for "executing, in its deliberations, the business of the town" (translated).
The council must meet at least once a quarter, or at a request from at least one third of its members, but usually meets once a month. The council manages the smallest French territorial community with legal and financial autonomy, the commune.
The number of seats in the municipal council depends on the number of inhabitants. This number is set by law: 7 seats for municipalities with less than 100 inhabitants to 69 seats for those with more than 300,000 inhabitants.
The number of councilors depends on the size of the city. The decree of 27 January 1977 gives that number based on segments of the population of the municipality of 9 members for smaller municipalities up to 49 more cities 300,000 inhabitants.
The law of November 1982, which is part of a package of reforms being made by the (PLM Act) on the specific case of the three biggest cities of France, changed the composition of municipal councils, maintaining the same segments of the population, from 9 to 49 members.
Finally, the Act of 17 May 2013 has been lowered from 9 to 7 the number of councilors in smaller communities with less than 100 inhabitants:
For Paris, Lyon and Marseilles, the number of councilors which should not be confused with the borough or sector' councilors which are more numerous but have limited powers, is determined by the :
Councilors are elected by direct universal suffrage for a term of six years, and can be reelected. The vote takes place following the .
The electoral system differs depending on the size of the municipality. The term of elected officials is 6 years. There are no term limits for city councilors.
In 2013, the law distinguished between the municipalities of less than 3500 inhabitants and those larger, the first electing their municipal councilors using a two-round system, the second using proportional representation in two rounds.
In municipalities with less than 3500 inhabitants, municipal councilors are elected by majority vote in two rounds, and in the municipalities of less than 2500 inhabitants, the candidate does not have to be registered to be elected.
Beginning with the elections of 2014, the threshold of 3500 inhabitants was reduced to 1000 inhabitants to facilitate the between men and women in elected office: Now, plurality-at-large voting is only used in communes with a population less than 1000 inhabitants. For communes with more than 1000 inhabitants, proportional representation is used. In addition, candidates who registered their candidacy with the prefecture or sub-prefecture can be elected, whatever the size of the municipality.
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