sentences:  Hence, the constitutional powers of the president were limited.However, the personal prestige of the first two presidents, Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, and the instability of successive governments (for example, Masaryk's presidency saw 10 cabinets headed by nine statesmen) meant that the president wielded in practice more authority than the plain text of the constitution suggested.The constitution laid down that all executive functions rested with the government except as expressly assigned to the president.