Minister-President
Encyclopedia
A minister-president is the head of government
in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary
or semi-presidential
system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers. It is an alternative term for prime minister
, premier
, chief minister
or first minister
, and very similar to the title of President of the Council
.
The German word Ministerpräsident means "president of the ministers". The designation "minister-president" is less frequently used in English; often politicians holding titles that literally correspond to "minister-president" are referred to in English as premiers (typically at the subnational level) or prime ministers (typically at the national level).
is called the Bundeskanzler
(federal chancellor), while the head of a state government is called the Landeshauptmann
(literally "state captain"), not Ministerpräsident.
See: List of Ministers-President of Austria.
: minister-president, French
: ministre-président, German
: Ministerpräsident) is also used in Belgium
to describe the head of government of a Belgian region or linguistic community
, but not the head of the Belgian federal government
who is referred to as the prime minister (Dutch: eerste minister, French: premier ministre, German: Premierminister).
According to the Belgian constitution, the federal prime minister is appointed by the king, and approved by the federal parliament with a vote of confidence (in practice the king usually appoints the leader of the winning party as "formateur" to form a government). The federal ministers later swear an oath of allegiance to the king. The ministers-president of the regions and linguistic communities are not appointed by the king, but are directly appointed by their respective parliament. Ministers of the regions and linguistic communities are not required to swear allegiance to the king but simply take an oath in their respective parliament.
See:
The Ministerpräsident is the head of government
of a German
state
; the office roughly corresponds to the governor
of a U.S. State
and more closely to the premier
of an Australian state or Canadian province; (strictly speaking the governor of a U.S. state is the chief executive under a presidential system
whereas the Ministerpräsident of a German state as well as the premier of an Australian state or Canadian province is the head of government under a parliamentary system
). Since noun
s in the German language
have grammatical gender, the feminine form Ministerpräsidentin may be used to refer to female office-holders.
The title is commonly translated as "prime minister" or "(State) Premier"; whereas "minister-president" or less often "minister president" is used in official business in order not to confuse the incumbent with a head of government of a nation-state.
The constitutional position of a minister-president is comparable to the one of chancellor at the federal level, except that there is no formal head of state at the state level, a function usually shared between the minister-president and the president of the Landtag
(state parliament).
Ministers-president of the German states are elected by their respective state parliaments and appoint ministers in their respective states (in six states the appointment of ministers is also subject to parliamentary approval), and determine policy guidelines. Along with several of their ministers, they commonly represent their state in the Bundesrat
(the German Federal Council) or abroad. By virtue of their position in the Bundesrat, they can exert considerable influence on national politics within the federal structure.
In the case of the three German city-state
s -- Berlin
, Bremen
, and Hamburg
-- the head of the state government is not called a Ministerpräsident but goes by a different title, viz. Regierender Bürgermeister (Governing Mayor of Berlin
), Bürgermeister und Präsident des Senats (Mayor
and President of the Senate) of Bremen
, and Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor) of Hamburg. Despite this difference in terminology, however, the heads of government of these city-states hold the same power and position as the ministers-president of the other German states.
head of government in Hungarian is miniszterelnök which literally translated means "minister-president". However, because "prime minister" or "premier" is the more usual title in a parliamentary system for a head of government in English-speaking nations, the head of the Hungarian government is usually referred to in English as the "Prime Minister of Hungary".
the prime minister is officially referred to as "minister-president", although the term "premier" is more commonly used. His responsibilities are defined in the constitution of 1848 (president of the council of ministers). The title of minister-president has been in official use since 1945.
, Vidkun Quisling
, head of the government
from 1942 to 1945 during the German
occupation
in World War II
, held the title of Minister-President (in Norwegian, ministerpresident).
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
or semi-presidential
Semi-presidential system
The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...
system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers. It is an alternative term for prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
, chief minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...
or first minister
First Minister
A First Minister is the leader of a government cabinet.-Canada:In Canada, "First Ministers" is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers...
, and very similar to the title of President of the Council
President of the Council of Ministers
The official title President of the Council of Ministers, or Chairman of the Council of Ministers is used to describe the head of government of the states of Italy and Poland, and formerly in the Soviet Union, Portugal, France , Spain , Brazil , and Luxembourg...
.
The German word Ministerpräsident means "president of the ministers". The designation "minister-president" is less frequently used in English; often politicians holding titles that literally correspond to "minister-president" are referred to in English as premiers (typically at the subnational level) or prime ministers (typically at the national level).
Austria
From 1867 to 1918, the first minister of the government was known as Ministerpräsident (minister-president), before that Staatskanzler (chancellor of state). Today the head of the Austrian Federal GovernmentAustrian Federal Government
The Austrian Federal Government is a collective body of the highest-ranking officers of the Austrian executive branch. It consists of the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and the other federal ministers of the cabinet...
is called the Bundeskanzler
Chancellor of Austria
The Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...
(federal chancellor), while the head of a state government is called the Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann is a former German gubernatorial title equivalent to that of a governor of a province or a state....
(literally "state captain"), not Ministerpräsident.
See: List of Ministers-President of Austria.
Belgium
The term minister-president (DutchDutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: minister-president, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: ministre-président, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Ministerpräsident) is also used in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
to describe the head of government of a Belgian region or linguistic community
Communities, regions and provinces of Belgium
Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities, three regions, and four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the sum of their circumscribed surfaces composes the entire country; in other words, the types overlap....
, but not the head of the Belgian federal government
Belgian federal government
The Cabinet of Belgium is the executive branch of the Belgian federal government, consisting of ministers and secretaries of state drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. Formally, the ministers are appointed by the King...
who is referred to as the prime minister (Dutch: eerste minister, French: premier ministre, German: Premierminister).
According to the Belgian constitution, the federal prime minister is appointed by the king, and approved by the federal parliament with a vote of confidence (in practice the king usually appoints the leader of the winning party as "formateur" to form a government). The federal ministers later swear an oath of allegiance to the king. The ministers-president of the regions and linguistic communities are not appointed by the king, but are directly appointed by their respective parliament. Ministers of the regions and linguistic communities are not required to swear allegiance to the king but simply take an oath in their respective parliament.
See:
- Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital RegionMinister-President of the Brussels-Capital RegionThe Minister-President of the Brussels Capital-Region is the person leading the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region. The post is appointed for 5 years along with 4 ministers and 3 "state" secretaries...
- List of Ministers-President of Flanders
- List of Ministers-President of the French Community
- List of Ministers-President of the Walloon Region
- List of Ministers-President of the German-speaking Community
Germany
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
of a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
; the office roughly corresponds to the governor
Governor (United States)
In the United States, the title governor refers to the chief executive of each state or insular territory, not directly subordinate to the federal authorities, but the political and ceremonial head of the state.-Role and powers:...
of a U.S. State
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
and more closely to the premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
of an Australian state or Canadian province; (strictly speaking the governor of a U.S. state is the chief executive under a presidential system
Presidential system
A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not responsible and which cannot, in normal circumstances, dismiss it....
whereas the Ministerpräsident of a German state as well as the premier of an Australian state or Canadian province is the head of government under a parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
). Since noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s in the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
have grammatical gender, the feminine form Ministerpräsidentin may be used to refer to female office-holders.
The title is commonly translated as "prime minister" or "(State) Premier"; whereas "minister-president" or less often "minister president" is used in official business in order not to confuse the incumbent with a head of government of a nation-state.
The constitutional position of a minister-president is comparable to the one of chancellor at the federal level, except that there is no formal head of state at the state level, a function usually shared between the minister-president and the president of the Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
(state parliament).
Ministers-president of the German states are elected by their respective state parliaments and appoint ministers in their respective states (in six states the appointment of ministers is also subject to parliamentary approval), and determine policy guidelines. Along with several of their ministers, they commonly represent their state in the Bundesrat
Bundesrat of Germany
The German Bundesrat is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder of Germany at the federal level...
(the German Federal Council) or abroad. By virtue of their position in the Bundesrat, they can exert considerable influence on national politics within the federal structure.
In the case of the three German city-state
City-state
A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
s -- Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
, and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
-- the head of the state government is not called a Ministerpräsident but goes by a different title, viz. Regierender Bürgermeister (Governing Mayor of Berlin
Governing Mayor of Berlin
The Governing Mayor of Berlin is the head of government in the city-state of Berlin, one of the States of Germany. It is the equivalent of the Ministers-President of the other German states except the two other city-states of Hamburg and Bremen, where the heads of government are called "First...
), Bürgermeister und Präsident des Senats (Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
and President of the Senate) of Bremen
Senate of Bremen
The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the government of the city-state of Bremen . The senate has existed since mediæval times. The senate is headed by a President, who also holds the title of Mayor. The President's deputy also holds the title Mayor...
, and Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor) of Hamburg. Despite this difference in terminology, however, the heads of government of these city-states hold the same power and position as the ministers-president of the other German states.
Hungary
The title of Hungary'sHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
head of government in Hungarian is miniszterelnök which literally translated means "minister-president". However, because "prime minister" or "premier" is the more usual title in a parliamentary system for a head of government in English-speaking nations, the head of the Hungarian government is usually referred to in English as the "Prime Minister of Hungary".
The Netherlands
In the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
the prime minister is officially referred to as "minister-president", although the term "premier" is more commonly used. His responsibilities are defined in the constitution of 1848 (president of the council of ministers). The title of minister-president has been in official use since 1945.
Norway
In NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...
, head of the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
from 1942 to 1945 during the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, held the title of Minister-President (in Norwegian, ministerpresident).