Legal provisions for mandatory referendums at national level

Constitution 2010

Article 149.

The President of the Republic negotiates and ratifies the international engagements.

The peace treaties, the treaties of commerce, the treaties or agreements relative to the international organization, those that engage the finance of the State, those that modify the provisions of a legislative nature, those that are relative to the status [l’état] of persons, those that include cession, exchange or adjunction of territory, may only be ratified or approved by a law.

No cession, no exchange, no adjunction of territory may take place without the consent by way [voie] of referendum of the concerned populations.

All the direct democracy provisions in the Constitution relate to optional referendums. Even amendment to the Constitution may or may not be put to popular vote (Article 152). The only provision (Article 149) which makes referendum mandatory is about accession, exchange or adjunction of territory and these referendums are normally held only in affected territories, not at the national level.