5.2. President

♤ The French President is the most powerful within the French system as well as amongst all other executive across world democracies

♤ Privileges of the Office of the President of US, i.e. security of tenure and being the head of the Government as well as head of the State is combined with the privileges of the Office of the British P.M. i.e. power to dissolve the Assembly (which the American President doesn’t enjoy)

♤ France has PM as well as President

o French PM, unlike that in India and Britain, is assistant to the President

o There is a division of functions, rather than division of power between the two positions

 The French President deals with foreign policy and national concerns

 The PM, on the other hand, deals with day to day routine functions of the Government and local domestic issues

♤ PM is appointed by the President

o The President doesn’t have a completely free-hand in PM’s election

o The person appointed as PM must enjoy the confidence of the House

♤ Concept of ‘Cohabitation’

o A situation where the President and the PM belong to different political parties

♤ PM may choose his cabinet colleagues

♤ None of the members of the Govt. can be a part of the legislature

♤ Cabinet is presided over by the President

♤ The Lower House can pass the ‘Censure Motion’ against the PM and his CoM, which would

imply that they must resign

♤ The President is elected for a fixed term. Initially the term was 9 years, reduced to 7 years and at present is 5 years.

♤ They follow Second Ballot system (i.e. absolute majority of the total votes polled is needed)

o The President of the Republic shall be elected by an absolute majority of votes polled: if in the first round of elections, no person gets absolute majority only the top two candidates remain and the rest are eliminated. Second round of election takes place, in which one person is able to get the absolute majority.