Mac-Mahon has dissolved the parliament and called…

Mac-Mahon has dissolved the parliament and called for new elections, which bring three hundred and twenty-three Republicans and two hundred and nine royalists to the Chamber, marking a clear rejection of the President's move.

Mac-Mahon has either to submit himself or to resign, as Léon Gambetta had famously called for: "When France will have let its sovereign voice heard, then one will have to submit himself or resign" (se soumettre ou se démettre).

On December 24, 1877, Mac-Mahon thus appoints a moderate republican, Jules Armand Dufaure, as president of the Council, and accepts Dufaure's interpretation of the constitution: ministers are responsible to the Chamber of deputies (following the 1896 institutional crisis, the Senate will obtain the right to control ministers).

The right of dissolution of parliament must remain exceptional. (It will not be used again during the Third Republic; even Philippe Pétain will not dare to dissolve it in 1940.)