rangerss75

I have the feeling there will be a lot of disappointed people. And I'm referring to those who will vote for the winner, not those who won't. You will have to excuse a foreigner (deprived of the vote, as well) who has lived in France since the Mitterand era, but I have yet to understand the point of the Fifth Republic. One single person is elected as Head of State and can even promise a programme (Chirac's, as I remember it last time, included reducing taxes by a third) which may well cost a small fortune and which he leaves to someone else to implement. (The present government, rightly realised that such a reduction would be irresponsible, given the level of France's debt, and didn't implement the promise, which wasn't theirs anyway.

The President can tell a government what to do, but doesn't have to take any responsibility for its being done. So he appoints a Prime Minister and tells him/her to implement a certain unpopular meaure. Everyone takes to the streets and the proposal is withdrawn. The Prime Minister gets the blame and the President replaces him/her with someone else and then, taking no responsibilty whatseoever for the policy faliure, goes back to patting cows on the backside at the Salon de l'Agriculture.

If you don't want a Royal (sorry) family, why not just let each Senator have a turn at being President for a year (rather like the Swiss) or draw the name out of a hat? Then leave the business of government to the government you elect in parliamentary elections.