French presidential elections under the Fifth Republic

Common card · No. 318633

There have been eleven presidential elections in France since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Originally the president was elected by the Collège des Notables (an assembly of "notable electors") that included around 80,000 county and city/town councillors (who had been elected locally). Following constitutional reform in November 1962 (the constitutional Act of 6 November), pushed by President de Gaulle, the president has been directly elected by the people of France in a two-round election. Until a 24 September 2000 constitutional referendum, the president had been elected for a seven-year term since 1974. With the referendum being successful, the term was reduced to five years. Therefore, once the winner of the 2002 election, Jacques Chirac, took office as president, the next election was scheduled for 2007 rather than 2009. Currently, the President of the French Republic is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election under Article 7 of the Constitution: if no...

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