 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Premier" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Part ofthe Politics series on |
| Executive government |
|---|
| Head of state |
| Government |
|
| Systems |
| Lists |
| Politics portal |
Premier is a title for thehead of government incentral governments,state governments andlocal governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as adeputy premier.
A premier will normally be ahead of government, but is not thehead of state. Inpresidential systems, the two roles are often combined into one, whereas inparliamentary systems of government the two are usually kept separate.
"Premier" is often the title of the heads of government insub-national entities, such as theprovinces and territories of Canada,states of theCommonwealth of Australia,provinces of South Africa, the island ofNevis within the Federation ofSaint Kitts and Nevis. 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 word comes from Frenchpremier ministre which means prime minister.Premier meaning 'first', coming from Latinprīmārius. This is why in many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister".
Australia – "premier" is the official title for the heads of government in Australia'ssix states. The term "chief minister" is the title of the head of government in Australia's two self-governing territories, and is effectively equivalent to a premier.
Canada – "premier" is used for the heads of government in Canada's 13Provinces and territories. "Premier ministre" is the French term for both the Prime Minister of the Canadian federal government and a provincial/territorial premier, so context and/or the office holder's name is needed to determine to which level of government one is referring. For example, the "premier ministre du Québec."
People's Republic of China – "premier" is more common and official, but "prime minister" is still used (seePremier of the People's Republic of China).
Taiwan – the head of government is officially the President of theExecutive Yuan, but it can also be abbreviated to Premier.
Cayman Islands – the head of government is referred to as the “Premier”, however, as a British Overseas Territory, the British Monarch is thehead of state, and the British government often has the last say on external affairs.
Bosnia and Herzegovina – "Premier" means the "Prime Minister". In theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a sub-national entity ofBosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in thecantons, the head of government has the formal title of "premier", often anglicized as "prime minister", while the national prime minister isChairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but "premier" is sometimes colloquially used.
Czechia – the head of government is colloquially called “Premiér”, and theCzech language translates both “Premier” and “Prime Minister” as “Premiér”. However, although his post is commonly translated in English as “Prime Minister”, the official title as per articles 67 and 68 of the Constitution is “Předseda vlády”, literally “President of the Government”.[1][2][3]
Croatia – the head of government is officially called “President of the Government” (predsjednik vlade) but “Premier” (premijer) is colloquially used.
Serbia – the head of government is officially called "President of the Government" (predsednik vlade) but "Premier" (premijer) is colloquially used.
Poland – thehead of government is officially called "President of the Council of Ministers" (Polish:Prezes Rady Ministrów,lit. 'Chairman of the Council of Ministers') but "Premier" (polish for Prime Minister) is colloquially used.
Italian Republic – thePresident of the Council of Ministers, an office equivalent to prime minister, is informally referred to as the "Premier".
North Macedonia – thehead of the government is named premier (Macedonian премиер,premier), usually translated in English asprime minister.
Soviet Union – the title of premier was applied to theChairman of theCouncil of People's Commissars, namedChairman of theCouncil of Ministers after 1946, which became thePrime Minister of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Malaysia – the head of theSarawak state government is known as thePremier of Sarawak following a state constitutional amendment in 2022, a move widely seen to reflect the status of Sarawak as an equal partner with Sabah and Malaya in Malaysia as stipulated in the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63).
Netherlands – the term premier is colloquially used as a synonym ofprime minister. In the Dutch language, the official and also commonly used term is "minister president", so this is even a third synonym, but this is normally not translated literally into the English language.
