User blog comment:Monkey.D.Me/Fairly Abridged - ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ) It all Starts when She says No/@comment-24442815-20140301012729/@comment-7418318-20140302200145

Not the same shit.

There IS an italian president and the prime minister in addition. They are two different political posts with different responsibilities and powers.

At least over here in Austria, the Chancellor is the head of gorvernment, dealing with the day to day matters of governing and making laws and stuff.

The President in peace-times is mostly for representing the country in foreign politics. While he can't intervene directly in the governing of the country, he has the emergency power to dissolve the parliament and fire the current government if the situation calls for it (though there's another political body who has to back that decision) and he's also the highest commander of what little military we have... in theory anyway.

With them having a prime minister and a president, I imagine the Italians have a political system not too dissimilar to this.