The
Fifth Republic is the fifth and current
republican constitution of
France, which was introduced on
October 5,
1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the ashes of the
French Fourth Republic, replacing a
parliamentary government with a
semi-presidential system.
Foundation by Charles de Gaulle
The impetus behind the creation of the Fifth Republic was the
Algiers crisis of 1958. Although France had since parted with many of its
colonies, many of them in
West Africa and
Southeast Asia,
Algeria was part of France and sent representatives to the French parliament. Its distance from the French mainland and the cultural differences inherent in being on another continent and largely with a different dominant religion, led to rising pressure for separation from the rest of France. The situation was complicated by the dispute being not a classic struggle for a colony to gain independence but for a part of a country to secede from the rest. At the same time, there were those in Algeria who wanted to stay part of France, so the Algerian War became not just a separatist movement but had elements of a civil war. Further complications came when a section of the French army rebelled and openly backed the "Algérie française" movement to defeat separation.
De Gaulle condemned terroristic acts committed in both Algeria and mainland France and angered the rebel section of the army and "Algérie française" supporters, including the latter-day Front National leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen, by arranging a peace with the nationalist rebels. Algeria became independent on
July 5,
1962.
Charles de Gaulle used the crisis to create a new French governmental system. In the Fourth Republic, governments had repeatedly fallen since the second world war as no party gained an overall majority. The position of president had little of its modern power. De Gaulle proposed that presidents should be elected for seven years, since reduced to five, and that they should have executive powers to run the country in consultation with a prime minister whom he would appoint from elected parliamentarians.
His plans were approved by 79.2 per cent of those who voted in a referendum on
September 28,
1958. Since each new constitution establishes a new republic, France moved from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic.
The president was initially elected by an
electoral college, but in
1962 de Gaulle proposed that the president should be directly elected by the citizens in a referendum. Although the method and intents of de Gaulle in that referendum were contested by most political groups except for the
Gaullists, the change was approved by the French electorate.
The president is now elected every five years in two rounds of voting. The first round is open to all and will establish a president if any candidate gets an overall majority. If there is no winner in the first round, the two candidates with the greatest number of votes go to a second round.
Fifth Republic: Presidents
| President |
Born-died |
from |
to |
Party
|
| Charles de Gaulle | 1890-1970 | December 21, 1959 | April 28, 1969 (resigned) | UNR
then UDR |
| Alain Poher | 1909-1996 | April 28, 1969 | June 15, 1969 (interim) | PDM |
| Georges Pompidou | 1911-1974 | June 15, 1969 | April 2, 1974 (died in office) | UDR |
| Alain Poher | 1909-1996 | April 2, 1974 | May 19, 1974 (interim) | PDM |
| Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | 1926- | May 19, 1974 | May 10, 1981 | UDF |
| François Mitterrand | 1916-1996 | May 10, 1981 | May 17, 1995 | Socialist |
| Jacques Chirac | 1932- | May 17, 1995 | May 16, 2007 | RPR
then UMP |
| Nicolas Sarkozy | 1955- | May 16, 2007 | present | UMP |
Fifth Republic: Prime ministers
| Prime Minister |
from |
to |
Party
|
| Michel Debré | January 8, 1959 | April 14, 1962 | UNR |
| Georges Pompidou | April 14, 1962 | July 10, 1968 | UNR |
| Maurice Couve de Murville | July 10, 1968 | June 20, 1969 | UDR |
| Jacques Chaban-Delmas | June 20, 1969 | July 6, 1972 | UDR |
| Pierre Messmer | July 6, 1972 | May 27, 1974 | UDR |
| Jacques Chirac | May 27, 1974 | August 26, 1976 | UDR |
| Raymond Barre | August 26, 1976 | May 21, 1981 | UDF |
| Pierre Mauroy | May 21, 1981 | July 17, 1984 | Socialist |
| Laurent Fabius | July 17, 1984 | March 20, 1986 | Socialist |
| Jacques Chirac | March 20, 1986 | May 10, 1988 | RPR |
| Michel Rocard | May 10, 1988 | May 15, 1991 | Socialist |
| Edith Cresson | May 15, 1991 | April 2, 1992 | Socialist |
| Pierre Bérégovoy | April 2, 1992 | March 29, 1993 | Socialist |
| Edouard Balladur | March 29, 1993 | May 18, 1995 | RPR |
| Alain Juppé | May 18, 1995 | June 3, 1997 | RPR |
| Lionel Jospin | June 3, 1997 | May 6, 2002 | Socialist |
| Jean-Pierre Raffarin | May 6, 2002 | May 31, 2005 | UMP |
| Dominique de Villepin | May 31, 2005 | May 15, 2007 | UMP |
| François Fillon | May 17, 2007 | present | UMP |
See also
government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]
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MottoLiberté, Égalité, Fraternité"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem"
La Marseillaise"
..... Click the link for more information. Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was the name given, in ancient times, to the region of Western Europe comprising present-day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of
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Franks or Frankish people (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an ethnic group living north and east of the Lower Rhine.
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French Monarchy-
Capetian Dynasty, House of Valois
(House of Valois>Valois-Orlans branch)
Louis XII
Children
Claude of France
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- Also see: Early Modern France
The
House of Bourbon is an important European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century.
..... Click the link for more information. The First Republic in France, officially the French Republic (French: République française) was proclaimed on 21 September 1792, during the French Revolution.
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The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, was the regime of Napoleon I in France, through which he dominated much of continental Europe.
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Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. The ensuing period is called the Restauration, following French usage, and is characterized by a sharp conservative reaction and the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Church as a power in French politics.
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The French Second Republic (or simply the Second Republic) was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire.
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The Second French Empire or Second Empire was the imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.
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The French Third Republic (in French, La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) (1870-10 July 1940) was the political regime of France between the Second French Empire and the Vichy Regime.
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For other uses, see Vichy (disambiguation).
Vichy France, or the
Vichy regime, was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. It succeeded the Third Republic.
..... Click the link for more information. Legislature National Assembly
Historical era Cold War
- Established October 14, 1946
- Disestablished October 4, 1958
Currency French Franc
The Fourth Republic
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Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a democracy, with an emphasis on liberty, rule by the people, and the civic virtue practiced by citizens. Republicanism always stands in opposition to aristocracy, oligarchy, and dictatorship.
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FranceThis article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
France
- Constitution
- Fifth Republic
- Government of France
- President
..... Click the link for more information. MottoLiberté, Égalité, Fraternité"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem"
La Marseillaise"
..... Click the link for more information. October 5 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
Events
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1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
1955 1956 1957 - 1958 - 1959 1960 1961
Year 1958 (MCMLVIII
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Legislature National Assembly
Historical era Cold War
- Established October 14, 1946
- Disestablished October 4, 1958
Currency French Franc
The Fourth Republic
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parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modelled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler (to speak): a parlement
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The
semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a prime minister and a president are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state.
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The May 1958 crisis (or Algiers putsch or the coup of May 13) was a political crisis in France, during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), which led to the return of
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colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception.
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West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa (which coincides with common reckonings of the region) includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of around 5 million
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Southeast Asia or
Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, and north of Australia.
..... Click the link for more information. Motto
من الشعب و للشعب (Arabic)
"From the people and for the people"
Anthem
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Jean-Marie Le Pen (born June 20, 1928, La Trinité-sur-Mer, France) is a French far-right nationalist politician, founder and president of the Front National (National Front) party.
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July 5 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
Events
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1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1959 1960 1961 - 1962 - 1963 1964 1965
Year 1962 (MCMLXII
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