Inaugurer les chrysanthèmes

Literally: To inaugurate the chrysanthemums

Example: “Le nouveau président du club n'a aucun pouvoir : on l'a mis là pour inaugurer les chrysanthèmes.” — The club's new president has no real power: they only put him there as a figurehead.

Origin: Under France's Third and Fourth Republics, the president was largely a ceremonial figure: real power lay with parliament and the government, and the head of state's calendar was filled with unveilings, ribbon-cuttings and commemorations. Chrysanthemums are the flowers the French lay on graves and war memorials, above all around All Saints' Day (la Toussaint), so "inaugurating the chrysanthemums" pictures a president whose only duty is to lay wreaths. The phrase was made famous by Charles de Gaulle at a press conference on September 9, 1965, when he asked whether anyone had ever believed that, once called to the helm (à la barre), he would settle for inaugurating chrysanthemums: a jab at the weak presidency his 1958 constitution had replaced. Some accounts trace the image to earlier newspaper reports of presidents laying chrysanthemums at monuments, but no firm earlier attestation has been confirmed. Today it is said of any leader, official or manager who has a title but no real influence.