Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on France & Portugal

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STAT	France	Portugal	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 108th. The same as Portugal	5 Ranked 100th.
President	Francois Hollande	Anibal Cavaco Silva
President > Profile	<p>Francois Hollande beat the conservative incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, in May 2012 to become France&#039;s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand held the post from 1981 to 1995.</p> <p>The standard-bearer of the right wing of the party, Mr Hollande saw off the more left-wing Martine Aubry in public primaries to become his party&#039;s presidential candidate.</p> <p>Despite his reputation as a moderate, Mr Hollande campaigned on strongly left-wing proposals, including a 75% top income tax rate, 60,000 new teachers, and the renegotiation of the European Union fiscal growth pact.</p> <p>His Socialists went on to won a comfortable majority in the June 2012 parliamentary elections, ensuring that President Hollande would not have to count on far-left or Green votes.</p> <p>But by the end of 2012, Mr Hollande&#039;s economic plans were in trouble, with growth stagnant and the continuing woes of the eurozone promising no relief.</p> <p>France continued to dip in an out of recession throughout the next year, and Mr Hollande&#039;s failure to make good on his promise to reduce unemployment by the end of 2013 left him with the lowest approval rating of any president since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.</p> <p>His decision to opt for raising taxes rather than cutting spending - an option unpopular with his natural supporters - has come close to triggering a taxpayers&#039; revolt.</p> <p>Mr Hollande has also come under pressure from Brussels, with the EU Commission urging France to reduce its budget deficit and bring down public spending - the highest per capita in Europe.</p> <p>His private life also threatened potential embarrassment after claims of an affair with actress Julie Gayet prompted media questions about his partner Valerie Trierweiler&#039;s status as first lady.</p> <p>On the international stage, Mr Hollande has taken a strong lead in pushing for a more interventionist approach towards shoring up states threatened with destabilisation. </p> <p>In January 2013, he sent troops to Mali to help government regain control over the north of the country from Islamist militants, and in December he deployed additional peacekeepers to the Central African Republic to help restore order after a rebel takeover.</p> <p>Born in 1954 in Rouen, Normandy, and a product of the &quot;grandes ecoles&quot; elite education system, Mr Hollande was an economic advisor to President Mitterrand, and became an MP in 1988.</p> <p>He rose to lead the party in the long years of opposition in 1997-2008, and stood down over a party row about the failed presidential campaign of his long-standing partner, Segolene Royal.</p> <p>Mr Hollande and Ms Royal later split up over his affair with journalist Valerie Trierweiler, now his partner.</p> <p>He emerged as the Socialist candidate after the favourite, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, saw his political career collapse in 2011 amid allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>	<p>Anibal Cavaco Silva won the January 2006 presidential poll, becoming the first centre-right president since the coup of 1974. </p> <p>He defeated two Socialist candidates to win a first round election victory.</p> <p>Although the role mainly ceremonial, the president can appoint prime ministers, dissolve parliament and call elections.</p>
President > Summary	Mr Hollande&#039;s tax rises have met with fierce resistance	President Anibal Cavaco Silva
Prime minister	Jean-Marc Ayrault	Pedro Passos Coelho
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Jean-Marc Ayrault, a long-standing ally of President Hollande, is a veteran leader of the Socialists&#039; parliamentary bloc and mayor of Nantes. The premiership is his first senior government post. </p> <p>He has a reputation as a calm consensus-builder. Mr Ayrault is a German-speaker, seen as an asset for the president in handling France&#039;s relationship with Germany. </p>	<p>Mr Passos Coelho heads a centre-right coalition government formed in June 2011 and charged with steering the country out of financial crisis.</p><p>His Social Democratic Party won parliamentary elections, but as it failed to gain sufficient seats to govern alone it teamed up with the Popular Party.</p> <p>His government was compelled to implement austerity measures and economic reforms in return for a rescue package.</p> <p>On taking office Mr Passos Coelho said that his new government considered bringing the country&#039;s public finances under control to be an &quot;urgent imperative&quot;.</p> <p>He said government objectives would be carried out &quot;in conformity&quot; with the bailout agreement signed with the European Union and IMF. Under the deal the country was obliged to cut the budget deficit to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 from 9.1 percent in 2010.</p> <p>The government pushed through several tough packages of public spending cuts, but backed down on a social security tax rise when the proposed increase triggered mass street protests in September 2012.</p> <p>Mr Passos Coelho made progress in reducing the deficit, but faced renewed tension within his coalition in the summer of 2013, with the Popular Party unhappy with the intensity of austerity measures.</p> <p>The debt crisis in Portugal, alongside the crisis in Ireland and the most serious crisis in Greece, has given rise to deep concerns over the resilience of the European Union&#039;s economy.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Jean-Marc Ayrault was elected as prime minister in May 2012	Passos Coelho has the task of steering the country out of troubled economic waters

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