Why are prime ministers more powerful than presidents in Europe?

[Anonymous]

[WonderBell99]

In a democracy, there are two *main* forms of government - presidential and parliamentary. In a presidential system, the head of the government leads an executive, that is distinct from the legislature. Here, the head of the government and the head of the state are one and the same. The executive here is the President.


- The executive (President) can veto acts by the legislature.
- The President has a fixed tenure and cannot be removed by a vote of no-confidence in the legislature.
- Generally, the President has the power to pardon or commute judicial sentences awarded to criminals.
- The President is elected directly by the people or by an electoral college.

In a PARLIAMENTARY form of government, the Prime Minister is the head of the state. In this system, the parliament is generally supreme and the executive is responsible to the legislature. The Prime Minister along with the Council of Ministers form the executive and the Parliament is the legislature. The PM and the ministers are elected from the members of parliament.


There are two executives – the real executive and the titular executive. The nominal executive is the head of state (president or monarch) while the real executive is the Prime Minister, who is the head of government.

TL;DR - the President is a nominal head whereas the real power is in the hands of the Prime Minister.

[WonderBell99]

It can also be hybrid sometimes. Need not necessarily be either fully presidential or cabinet

[OddBeMe]

Parliaments are like our congress. But they’re called Ministers, elected locally by voters like us. Prime Ministers are elected out of the ministers (either by voters, or by the Ministers) to be the “executive branch” of the government. And some countries, not all, have technical “presidents” (Russia comes to mind) that are separate offices, but I think they’re more for show. Kinda like a VP in America.

[Cubus]

Depends where. In France, Ukraine or Russia prime minister is not more powerful than president.

And other countries adopted parlamentary type of country, where president is mostly representative.

[andreasderjuengere]

Because not all Europeans copy shit that comes from abroad?
There are always multiple ways of organizing things.

[jshm2]

No. They are basically the same power, just different government structure.