The article debates from an institutional perspective the criticized romanian semipresidential constitutional design with a dual executive: the popularly elected President and the Prime minister responsible toghether with the Government in front of the Parliament. Until now, Romania had three presidents and nine prime ministers1. Since 1991, the ratio of forces between the prime ministers and romanian presidents was diferent from case to case: sometimes obedient, sometimes tensioned or even conflictual. In this article we shall discuss the concept and tipology of semipresidentialism in an european context (part I) and the specific features of both constitutional design and political practice of romanian postcommunist semipresidentialism (part II). In part III, we shall focus on the sensible debate of choosing another form of government for Romania, both from a political and normative perspective.