The Cabinet, which consists of members of the Government, includes the Prime Minister and all the Ministers which are appointed by the President of the Republic on the proposal of the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the party that controls the absolute majority of Parliament Members. If no party has the absolute majority of the Parliament, the President gives the leader of the party with a relative majority an exploratory mandate, i.e. gives him a mandate to examine the possibility of forming a government in cooperation with other parties that can secure a parliamentary vote of confidence. Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister shall safeguard the unity of the government and direct the activities thereof. He is the strongest person in the Greek political system and proposes the appointment or dismissal of Ministers and Deputy Ministers to the President of the Republic.
The Greek parliamentary democracy is based on the principle of the declared confidence of the Parliament to the Government. Thus the President must appoint a Prime Minister that may receive the vote of confidence by the Members of the Parliament (i.e. 151 votes). The Government may at any time request a vote of confidence from the Parliament: conversely, a number of Members of the Parliament may request a "vote of reproach". These two processes rarely occur in practice.
