The Conseil Constitionnel has deemed the CPE to be constitutionally legal tonight. The President, Jacques Chirac, will now to speak to the nation.
![Palais Royal Palais Royal](https://files.libcom.org/files/styles/small_wide/public/palais-royal.gif?itok=nEj1EP1o)
To be broadcast at 8pm French time tomorrow night, it will go out on all channels.
The Constitutional Council
The Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. It is the highest constitutional authority in France. Its duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution are upheld. It considers conformity with the Constitution, and, since 1971, conformity with two texts referred to by the preamble of that constitution: the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen and the preamble of the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which are considered to be general principles of constitutional law.
The Council can only do so when issues are brought before it, it has no power to judge otherwise. Thus statute legislation can only be judged to be unconstitutional if it is brought before the Council before it is signed, after it is passed by Parliament: it is not possible to bring legislation to the Council afterward. The Council sits in the Palais Royal in Paris.
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