The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.

The president of the French Republic is the ex officio co-prince of Andorra, grand master of the Legion of Honour and of the National Order of Merit.

The officeholder is also honorary proto-canon of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, although some have rejected the title in the past.

The presidency of France was first publicly proposed during the July Revolution of 1830, when it was offered to the Marquis de Lafayette.

[2][3] Eighteen years later, during the opening phases of the Second Republic, the title was created for a popularly elected head of state, the first of whom was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Emperor Napoleon.

Bonaparte served as president until he staged a self-coup against the republic, proclaiming himself Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.

However, the next legislature was dominated by Republicans, and after President Patrice de MacMahon had unsuccessfully tried to obtain a new royalist majority by dissolving the Chambre des Députés, his successor Jules Grévy promised in 1879 that he would not use his presidential power of dissolution, and therefore lost his control over the legislature, effectively creating a parliamentary system that would be maintained for 80 years until the accession of Charles de Gaulle as president in 1959.

A 1962 referendum changed the constitution, so that the president would be directly elected by universal suffrage and not by the electoral college established in 1958.

[8] Since the 1962 presidential referendum, the president has been directly elected by universal suffrage; previously, an electoral college decided the head of state.

Following a further change, the constitutional law of 2008 on the modernization of the institutions of the Fifth Republic, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.

Incumbent Emmanuel Macron is the fourth president (after de Gaulle, Mitterrand, and Chirac) to win re-election, having done so in 2022.

After a new president is elected, they go through a solemn investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs ("handing over of powers").

They have also the duty of arbitrating the functioning of governmental authorities for efficient service, as the head of state of France.

Article 16: Where the institutions of the republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory or the fulfilment of its international commitments are under serious and immediate threat, and where the proper functioning of the constitutional public authorities is interrupted, the president of the republic shall take the measures required by these circumstances, after formally consulting the prime minister, the presidents of the assemblies and the Constitutional Council.

The measures must stem from the desire to provide the constitutional public authorities, in the shortest possible time, with the means to carry out their duties.

Article 18: The president of the republic shall communicate with the two assemblies of Parliament by means of messages, which he shall cause to be read and which shall not be the occasion for any debate.

Before the 2008 constitutional reform forbidding them, there was a tradition of so-called "presidential amnesties", which are something of a misnomer: after the election of a president, and of a National Assembly of the same party, parliament would traditionally vote a law granting amnesty for some petty crimes (it was also a way of reducing jail overpopulation).

This practice had been increasingly criticized, particularly because it was believed to inspire people to commit traffic offences in the months preceding the election.

They were reformed by a 2007 constitutional act[15] in order to clarify a situation that previously resulted in legal controversies.

However, the statute of limitation is suspended during their term, and enquiries and prosecutions can be restarted, at the latest one month after they leave office.

This has been interpreted by some constitutional academics as meaning first the prime minister and, if they are themselves not able to act, the members of the cabinet in the order of the list of the decree that nominated them.

Other presidential residences include: According to French law, former presidents of the Republic have guaranteed lifetime pension defined according to the pay grade of the Councillors of State,[26] a courtesy diplomatic passport,[27] and, according to the French Constitution (Article 56), membership of the Constitutional Council.

[28] In 2008, according to an answer by the services of the prime minister to a question from René Dosière, a member of the National Assembly,[29] the facilities comprised: a security detail, a car with a chauffeur, first class train tickets and an office or housing space, as well as two people who service the space.

Former presidents of France will no longer receive a car with chauffeur and the personnel in their living space was cut as well.