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 matching the term of office of the President with the Deputies. Indeed, when the parliamentary majority did not support the President, he would be forced to appoint a hostile prime minister as a minister of his party and would be likely be reversed by the National Assembly. The Constitution includes in its preamble, since , an of 10 articles, at the request of President of the Republic Jacques Chirac. For the subsequent ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, a revision of Title XV of the Constitution was passed by Congress on February 4, 2008, by 560 votes against 181. The