Government of Savoy

Gouvernement

The Savoyard Confederation is a federal constitutional monarchy with HM King Louis-Philippe as the head of state and Jean-Luc Cabanier as the head of the government. It has at its disposal the civil service, the government agencies, and the armed forces. Members of the gouvernement are given the formal title of minister and each hold a different portfolio of government duties. The day-to-day role of the gouvernement members is to serve as head of one or more segments of the national bureaucracy, as head of the civil servants to which all employees in that department report.

Cabinet government
The current cabinet has 18 ministers including the prime minister. The number is however not established by law, but entirely the prime minister's choice.

The prime minister leads the work of the cabinet and is the official Head of Government. On occasion there have been appointed deputy prime ministers; when none such exist, the constitution points out the minister with the most seniority in the cabinet as the designate deputy prime minister. Seniority is determined by the total time in the cabinet, with age used as a tie breaker.

The government is divided into a number of offices or ministries. Presently there are seventeen such offices but this number is also not established by law. All ministers serve as Head of Office of their ministry. It is not uncommon to have a few changes, such as ministries being split in two or several ministries amalgamated into one, or areas of responsibilities shifted between ministries, each government term.

Cabinet members who are Parliament members (which is not a requirement but the most common situation), including the prime minister, resign their seats in the Parliament while holding cabinet office and are replaced by substitutes from the same party. Upon their visits to the Parliament, like the weekly question time, the ministers sit at specially designated seats in the lower left hand corner of the session hall.

Current cabinet