Once you lose independence of the judiciary system you basically lost the last remaining checks and balances. This is why I never bought into the threat of fascism from Trump. He would have to make similar changes which would never get off the ground. The US system has been shown to work exactly as intended on a number of occasions in the last two months.
The problem is the executive state has grown significantly over the last few decades in the US. But that was hardly unique to Trump.
If anything the main issue is the presidents ability to conduct 'military actions' without congress. That seems like a major risk.
But compared to Turkey the situation is far better in other western states. This is one situation where saying "USA DOES IT TOO!" can't be used to dismiss this out of hand (or EU countries in this case). And even if they did it wouldn't make it a good idea.
A centralized presidential system does make it easier to have all sorts of abuse, from which no western democracy is immune.
I have followed French politics for too long to believe in coincidences.
So far, there are no proofs. You also have to realize that our political class is prone to backstabbing, much much more than any other country. Everyone has dirt on everyone in the same party. So far, the Fillon revelations rather seem like they're coming from LR, not the PS or Hollande.
In term of proof, it has kind of been confirmed by Hollande himself indirectly. In his interview book "Un president ne devrait pas dire ca", he mentioned that Fillon contacted him after he took office, encouraging him to dig more dirt on Sarkozy, otherwise they will be facing him at the next election. Hollande then praised his own virtue by pretending he did not proceed and Fillon denied ever asking that. However whether this discussion happened or not, and whether Hollande did it or not, what Hollande confirmed indirectly is that it was a perfectly reasonable request from an insider of French politics (a former prime minister) to get the president to use the justice system against his opponent.
'Exactly as intended' and the growth of executive influence and the federal government as a whole seem rather contradictory. And what's unique is Trump himself.
The next claim you had an issue with:
> The US system has been shown to work exactly as intended on a number of occasions in the last two months.
That's why it's not contradictory. The courts have (finally) been reining in the president. (It would have been nice if it started a decade or two ago, but Trump is, as you say, something of a unique threat, and that may be concentrating minds in the judiciary.)
> As such, the prime minister, supported by the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO), controls the appointments of many key figures in Canada's system of governance, including the governor general, the Cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, senators, heads of crown corporations, ambassadors to foreign countries, the provincial lieutenant governors, and approximately 3,100 other positions.
The bigger issue is their failure to add some context to make the comparison actually interesting. Like they could say that Canadian Prime Ministers are rarely removed from office (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_defeat... ). Nevermind that it has been done a number of times in an orderly fashion.
I think many Canadians took for granted just how much process was informal tradition followed on honour and not binding rules.
http://anayasadegisikligi.barobirlik.org.tr/Anayasa_Degisikl...
It can't be done, not in Turkey. Appointing judges is in the hands of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors. The president appoints half of the 12-member board and the parliament, most of whom are Erdogan supporters, appoints the other half.
France is not even close to what Edrogan is doing. Yes, our system gives a lot of power to the president, more than in many countries. However, the prime minister is picked amongst the majority in the national assembly, and there are many, many countermeasures to ensure the president doesn't go wild, even if some recent presidents have tried to erode that (namely, Sarkozy).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_Turkish_purges
But contrast that ideal with the reality that the government had already purged thousands of judges to destroy their independence and disempower then.