The main reason for doubts about the power of the presidency is cohabitation – the political ‘exception française’ par excellence, whereby a president and prime minister from opposing political parties share power in a loosely defined way. For its advocates, cohabitation provides a useful system of checks and balances not that different from a traditional coalition. For detractors, it creates the perfect conditions for watered down legislation and stagnant policy.
There have been other times of left/right cohabitation since the mid-1980s, but the past five years has been the longest period. Foreign leaders have grown used to seeing right-wing President Jacques Chirac and socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin at European Union summits like a Gallic odd couple, communicating matters of foreign policy through gritted teeth, with ‘a single voice’. Official visitors have also got used to the protocol of making two separate house calls during visits to Paris.