Deputy Prime Minister of France

As for all other members of the government, the appointment, or removal, was formally by the head of state, but bowing to the decision of the prime minister.

[3] Viviani was also the first prime minister not holding a specific portfolio in order to concentrate on the coordination of an expanding state apparatus.

In 1871, for lack of a permanent constitution, Adolphe Thiers was installed as chief executive of the French Republic in February; while the Rivet Law granted him the title of president of the Republic in August, this was in compensation for a restriction of his powers by the National Assembly, under which ministers were made responsible to the assembly.

[6] In his government statement, Dufaure defined his new position by declaring that he had been “chosen by the President of the Republic to exercise in his name the powers conferred on him by the Constitution”.

[13] This was however only by convention, and the position or title of head of government had no legal existence until the 1870s; some other ministers were informally considered second-in-command, but were not commonly called vice president.

During the Second Empire (1852–1870), the position of prime minister had been pointedly abolished by Napoleon III, who led government business in person, but the minister of state, who was ranked first and was close to the Emperor, came to be seen as the primus inter pares, especially when speaking in the name of the Emperor in important parliamentary business.