President =/= Prime minister in France
The president is elected during the presidential elections, he then appoints (a nomination) his prime minister, who will be the head of the government, and in turn nominates his ministers.
It is common (but not the law) to appoint a prime minister that is from the party that has the parliament majority (through parliament elections that happen after the presidential elections)… Or whenever the president dissolves the parliament prompting new parliament elections. This is what happened here after the results of the European elections).
If the parliament disagrees with the nominated prime minister, they can hold a “No confidence vote” which forces the nomination of a new prime minister if it passes. So it’s not easy to be prime minister because you have to be “accepted” by the parliament. iirc last year the left tried 3 times to vote a no confidence in the previous prime minister, and was very close to succeed every time.
Usually the president is in charge of international affairs, and the prime minister of the national affairs, but we french have a hard on for king-like figures of state, so the president is kind of seen as the most important person in the government. The prime minister is mostly just his lap dog, a yes man that follows his orders 🥲
Sounds like how it was supposed to be in the US, until Congress gradually ceded authority to the executive branch. Which is good in terms of executive agencies like the EPA, but not good in terms of actually running the country itself long-term. Glad to hear it’s working in Germany, at least for now. Hopefully you guys don’t elect a president from AfD or whatever, because you’d probably end up with problems like ours.
