Premier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Premier is a title for the
head of government in some countries, states and sub-national governments. A second in command to a premier is designated as a
vice-premier or
deputy premier.
Examples by country
In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "
prime minister".
In the
People's Republic of China, "premier" is more common and official, but "prime minister" is still used (see
Premier of the People's Republic of China).
In five of the
British overseas territories (
Bermuda, the
Cayman Islands,
Montserrat, the
Turks and Caicos Islands, and the
British Virgin Islands), the elected
heads of government are styled as "Premier". In other overseas territories the equivalent post is styled as
Chief Minister.
"Premier" is also the title of the heads of government in
sub-national entities, such as the
provinces and territories of
Canada,
states of the
Commonwealth of Australia,
provinces of
South Africa, the island of
Nevis within the Federation of
Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the nation of
Niue. In some of these cases, the formal title remains "Prime Minister" but "Premier" is used to avoid confusion with the national leader. In these cases, care should be taken not to confuse the title of "premier" with "prime minister". In these countries, terms such as "Federal Premier", "National Premier" or "Premier of the Dominion" were sometimes used to refer to prime ministers, although these are now obsolete. The French language does not differentiate between premier and prime minister and therefore federal prime ministers and provincial, state or colonial premiers are all called
premier ministres.
[1]
In
Cambodia, "Premier" means the "Prime Minister".
In the
Czech Republic, "Premiér" means the "Prime Minister" and the
Czech language translates both "Premier" and "Prime Minister" as "Premiér".
In
Croatia, the head of government is officially called "President of the Government" (
predsjednik vlade) but "Premier" (
premijer) is colloquially used.
In
Serbia, the head of government is officially called "President of the Government" (
predsednik vlade) but "Premier" (
premijer) is colloquially used.
In
Italy, the
President of the Council of Ministers, an office equivalent to prime minister, is informally referred to as the "Premier".
In
North Macedonia the
head of the government is named premier (Macedonian премиер,
premier), usually translated in English as
prime minister.
A premier will normally be a
head of government, but is not usually the
head of state. In
presidential systems, the two roles are often combined into one, whereas in
parliamentary systems of government the two are usually kept separate.
An example of nations that have separate roles for the premier/prime minister and the president are the
Fifth French Republic,
South Korea and China.
In the
Soviet Union, the title of premier was applied to the Chairman of the
Council of People's Commissars (Renamed
Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1946) who acted as the
Soviet Union's Premier.
By jurisdiction
See also