The French parliament voted on Wednesday to ban members from holding other elected posts from 2017, challenging a system President François Hollande has blamed for keeping politics in the hands of entrenched elites, reports Euronews.
The National Assembly voted 313 in favour and 225 against legislation banning members of the French or European parliament from holding local executive office such as mayorships despite opposition from upper house senators.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls hailed the reform as “a democratic revolution of our institutions”.
Hollande promised in his 2012 election campaign to end the stranglehold of deputies over local fiefdoms in order to give political newcomers and more women a chance of being elected.
Sixty percent of deputies and senators in France also hold local office, despite a number of surveys showing that a large majority of the French opposes the arrangement.
Though not unique to France, the practice of accumulating local titles has at times been pushed to an extreme. Socialist Senator Michel Delebarre of the Nord region, holds 26 local titles including mayor of the northern city of Dunkirk.
Hollande himself has benefitted from the practice, acting as mayor of Tulle, a town in central France, while representing the surrounding region in parliament between 2001 and 2008.
But he has pressed hard for a ban, arguing it was needed improve gender parity in politics and bring France into line with neighbours Germany and Spain, where deputies are banned from holding local executive office.
The draft law must still be approved by the Constitutional Court and will not enter into force before local and European parliament elections taking place in March and May.
But the vote will force many candidates to say publicly whether or not they choose to remain mayors.
Critics say those with several titles lack time to do each job properly, earn excessive salaries and hold too much sway over local politics, exposing them to conflicts of interest.
Even so, debate on the law has dragged on for more than seven months due to fierce opposition in the upper house, where senators voted in January to amend the ban so it would only apply to members of the lower house National Assembly.
Read more of this Reuters report published by Euronews.