Can he get anything done?
Andrew Knapp
Will Emmanuel Macron govern, or merely reign? The president’s powers under the 1958 Constitution are significant but insufficient to govern as he chooses. To do that, he needs the backing of a parliamentary majority, which he may or may not win at elections in mid-June. While the victorious Macron talks a confident talk on reform, it is these further votes that could seal the fate of his reforms, and settle the sort of president he will be—a mighty majoritarian, on the one hand, or, on the other, a cohabiting lodger in power.
The limits of the president’s constitutional powers were demonstrated when François Mitterrand (1986-88 and 1993-95) and Jacques Chirac (1997-2002) “cohabited” with hostile parliamentary majorities. As the constitution required, the president appointed the prime minister, and other ministers on the PM’s proposal. But because the government is responsible to parliament, he had to appoint the prime minister designated by the hostile majority, which left him with no real say in the shape of the government.