French Fifth Republic French Fifth Republic The Fifth Republic, France's current republican system of government, was established by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the Fourth Republic, replacing the former parliamentary republic with a semi-presidential, or dual-executive, system that split powers between a Prime Minister as head of government and a President as head of state. De Gaulle, who was the first French President elected under the Fifth Republic in December 1958, believed in a strong head of state, which he described as embodying ("the spirit of
Constitutional amendments under the French Fifth Republic beginning of the French Fifth Republic, revisions have been adopted without using section 89. Unless otherwise stated, the provisions of the constitutional laws come into force on the date of enactment. However, some recent constitutional laws have provided a delayed effective date. The material content of the Constitution, in these cases, changes on different dates from those of other enactments of constitutional laws. For example, the constitution act of 23 July 2008 provides in article 46 that some sections of the reform are effective on and others "under the conditions established by law and necessary for their implementing organic laws"