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President of the French Senate | |
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Président du Sénat français (French) | |
![]() Logo of the French Senate | |
since 1 October 2014 | |
Senate of France | |
Type | Presiding officer |
Member of | French Parliament |
Residence | Petit Luxembourg |
Term length | 3 years, renewable |
Formation | 28 October 1795 |
First holder | Claude-Antoine Rudel |
Succession | 1st |
Website | Official website |
This article lists the presidents of the Senate of France (French: Président du Sénat français; official translation: Speaker of the Senate)[1] and assimilated chambers.
The Senate is the upper house of the French Parliament. It is presided over by a president. Although there had been Senates in both the First and Second Empires, these had not technically been legislative bodies, but rather advisory bodies on the model of the Roman Senate. France's first experience with an upper house was under the Directory from 1795 to 1799, when the Council of Ancients was the upper chamber. With the Restoration in 1814, a new Chamber of Peers was created, on the model of the British House of Lords. At first it contained hereditary peers, but following the July Revolution of 1830, it became a body to which one was appointed for life. The Second Republic returned to a unicameral system after 1848, but soon after the establishment of the Second Empire in 1852, a Senate was established as the upper chamber. In the Fourth Republic, the Senate was renamed the Council of the Republic, but its function was largely the same. With the new constitution of the Fifth Republic in 1959, the older name of Senate was restored.