The President: Still a ‘Republican Monarch’?

Abstract

It is a commonplace observation that the presidential remit specifically defined and tacitly accommodated by the constitution of the Fifth Republic makes the President of France the most powerful leader of his nation in comparison with the other heads of state of the western world. And yet figures who seemed to preside imperiously over the French political system could be cruelly exposed as having feet of clay — figures who, once their presidential charisma had cracked under the weight of failure or scandal, proved to be as vulnerable as the figures of lesser stature they had previously dominated: most notably Charles de Gaulle, who during his mandate had defined the operation of presidential power, had barely seen his parliamentary majority secure an overwhelming victory in the legislative elections of June 1968, after the tumult of the previous month, before he gambled on the potency of his presidential charisma and lost. Having made approval of his plans for decentralization dependent on a direct consultation with the people by referendum, the prerogative which had significantly strengthened de Gaulle’s presidency proved its undoing. The consequences of the vote on 27 April 1969 against the proposed reforms were terminal, prompting the announcement of de Gaulle’s resignation on the following day.