CulturePolitics

France, now in its fifth republic, has an elected president along with a parliament. It is the president who chooses the prime minister. The president has executive powers; he or she is chief of state. The prime minister is the head of the government. The fifth republic was created with the idea that both the president and prime minister would be from the same party. That has not worked out; three times there have been "cohabitation" governments where the prime minister and president were not from the same party. That all should change as the president's term has been shortened from seven to five years, the same length as parliament and elections for both are set to fall in the same year.