Extreme populist parties and the presidentialisation of politics as a new threat to the Fifth French Republics constitutional order

The chapter deals with new challenges to the constitutional order in the French political system in recent years. It draws attention to the profound changes in the party system that have occurred since the 2017 elections and have been deepened five years later. Those changes lead to the growing importance of extreme parties, including the far-right National Rally. The analysis focuses on the changes against the background of constitutional arrangements, phenomena, and processes that are characteristic features of the Fifth Republic treated as a coherent Gaullist political project: the majority electoral system in the elections to the National Assembly, mechanisms for stabilising parliamentarism through its rationalisation, as well as the so-called majoritarian presidentialism defined as the opposite of cohabitation. Particular attention is paid to the growing role of the executive branch, which uses various emergency measures to respond to numerous crises (e.g. terrorist threats and COVID-19). The main argument is that the previous changes, combined with the presidentialised Fifth Republic, may not so much secure the constitutional order but contribute to its faster erosion as soon as the populist extreme parties gain a direct influence on the executive branch by winning the presidency or ministerial posts in the government.