France's executive branch: How power is shared at the top • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] time now for French connections our weekly look at the intricacies of life here in France this week we're going to focus on French politics and how the actual institutions work in the wake of snap parliamentary elections called in June president Emanuel macron has taken his time naming a prime minister so let's take a closer look with what the respective roles of the president and the Prime Minister are here in France and does the French president have too much power Flo hey Dano well let's Dive Right In with our word usual which is a word that comes up when you talk about executive power here in France great word for you Scrabble Buffs out there it's balis so Bal means two-headed so you get the idea in France the executive is a two-headed monster so on the one hand you have the president directly uh elected by the French uh people and on the other hand you have the Prime Minister who is named by the president and responsible in front of the parliament now the relationship between the president and the prime minister is regulated by the French Constitution articles 5 15 20 and 21 there is some plasticity though uh in this relationship in the Constitution so it does give a little bit of wiggle room to the players involved let's start with the role of the president Florence because uh the the French presidency is unique immensely powerful as an institution in fact some experts say it's the most powerful office in the Democratic world that's right French presidents have more power than leaders in other countries like Germany the UK and the United States at the scale of France keep that in mind at the scale of France so first of all the French President is the head of state uh and in in charge of ensuring that the French Constitution is upheld the French President is also the person who sets the nation's policy agenda and represents France abroad on the world stage uh the French President is also commanderin-chief you can see all the French presidents of the fifth Republic here uh the French president is commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and has the power to deploy troops abroad and uh order the use of nuclear force so a lot of power there and the French president has a lot of power with respect to the parliament uh if uh uh for instance if lawmakers get in the way well the president can dissolve parliament or bypass it by organizing a popular referendum like what happened recently with the with the new elections now let's listen to some former press uh French presidents late French presidents describe the job you'll see what they have to say Che so you sawu valer describ ing the job there as you could see pretty open to interpretation uh Flo critics say the French President is the closest thing in the developed world to an elected dictator or to put it in a nicer way the French President is a kind of temporary absolute monarch which is ironic for a country that works so hard to get rid of a king that's right it would be tempting to say that this kind of President a strong leader in charge of everything is a form of nostalgia for the monarchy but uh the historical origins of this strong leader are actually much more recent uh a strong president is a key feature of the fifth Republic which was ushered in by uh Charles deal with the constitution of 1958 and the idea was that France needed uh kind of like a father-like figure to call the shots and prevent the Parliamentary paralysis that had really plagued the country for decades now critics were very afraid at the time that this kind of strong president could be a a slippery slope into authoritarianism but listen to what deul had to say to them now Flo one of the perks of being president is that you get to appoint the country's a prime minister but French Prime Ministers themselves don't have as much power as in other countries and they're not even really much of a permanent sidekick like the vice president in the United States that's right now the French prime minister is in charge of defending the government's uh policy before the Parliament and running the uh day-to-day Affairs of the nation but it's really the president who calls the shots and sets the tempo it's said that the so basically the Prime Minister does what the president gets done uh now pres Prime Ministers are essentially managers uh they are are very easily disposable if the president needs a quick reset or a lightning rod to take the Heat away from them essentially the prime minister is on an ejectable seat let's listen to the late president uh franois miton talk about what he thought the role of the Prime Minister was now Flo there is one case however where the president's power is reduced and the Prime Minister has more power at least symbolically and that is when the opposition gets majority in Parliament like in recently recent parliamentary elections that's right and in that case the president must choose a ruling party from uh excuse me a ruling partner from the opposition party or the opposition uh and this is an a very awkward situation that's known as coab cohabitation executive power is awkwardly shared between those two heads that we were talking about at the beginning both the president and the Prime Minister are trying to call the shots they're trying to lead the dance uh in the past it has remained civil at least on the [Music] surface bral so you heard it there cabit is like a divorce awkward situation where no one wants to be the unpopular parent indeed thank you very much for that Flo uh Flo vilo there that's all the time we have for this edition of French connections if you have questions about France or the French you can reach out to Flo at Flo vilo or check out our website uh france24.com