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2.docxHistory: Governments from 1945 to Present
Section 2: The Fifth Republic (1958-present)
Overview
This section of Module 4 provides an overview of the presidents of the Fifth Republic and the trajectory the presidency has taken from 1958 to the present. We will also discuss the war in Algeria (1954-1962).
Key terms and concepts: Algerian war, the Fifth Republic, student riots of May 1968, Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Front National, entry into European Union, Eurotunnel
Table of Contents:
Chapter 8: Algeria: The Unacknowledged War (Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 101-112)
· Charles de Gaulle (1958-1969)
· Georges Pompidou (1969-1974)
· Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1981)
· François Mitterrand (1981-1995)
· François Hollande (2012-2017)
· Emmanuel Macron (2017-present)
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After completing the following readings, see if you are able to do these things: |
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· Name the presidents of the French Republic since 1958 · Cite one accomplishment and one challenge associated with each president. · What reasons can you cite for the "no" vote returned by the French electorate May 29, 2005 in the referendum on the EU Constitution? · What consequences do you foresee for France in the EU as a result of Britain's historic vote to leave the EU on June 23, 2016? |
Chapter 8: Algeria: The Unacknowledged War (Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 101-112)
Chapter 8 deals with one of the most painful and least understood wars fought over the question of Algerian nationalism. N-B say that it is no exaggeration to call it the Vietnam of the French as a way of making it more understandable to North Americans. Probably what most Americans can identify with is the fact that the French sent 1.3 million troops to fight against 330,000 Algerian guerrillas and lost. In both scenarios, the people at home were hugely divided over military involvement from the outset. In the case of Algeria, government officials were committed to retaining what was part and parcel of France. This was especially true since many of the French families that lived there had been on Algerian soil for Generations. Their lives and livelihoods were tied to the land and, thus, had no "home" to return to in mainland France. Early generations of these Pieds-Noirs as they were called for their black feet from working on the Mediterranean coal ferries, took the best land for themselves, relegating the native Muslim population to ghetto-like towns especially created for them. From 1848, the French government had considered Algeria a part of France. In 1870 all Jews and in 1889 all children of European immigrants were granted French citizenship, but this status was never extended to all indigenous Muslims, who basically had no civil rights. They were treated as a sort of underclass, and only several thousand managed to pass through all the hoops required to demonstrate that they could live in accordance with French customs to the level required to earn the right to become citizens. This is the stage upon which the eight-year conflict was to erupt and which de Gaulle would once again be called upon to resolve.
· What makes the legacy of the Algerian war such a heavy burden for the French?
· What made the French attempt at pacification such a failure in Algeria?
· What information surfaced during the trial of Maurice Papon and in the memoirs of retired general Aussaresses that forced the French to look back at this dark period in their history?
· What kept undermining the French government's efforts as well as attempts by some high civil servants to improve the lot of the native Muslims by giving them more rights and better services?
· Although the Algerian Marxist FLN (National Liberation Front) was not a match for the French army, how did this terrorist organization manage to win politically and gain so much sympathy in the eyes of the world ?
· How was de Gaulle finally able to regain control of the army, avoid a coup, and bring about a vote by which Algeria won its independence in 1962?
· How is the anti-colonial discourse generated by the Left over the question of Algeria related to anti-globalization campaigns such as those undertaken by José Bové and others?
Charles de Gaulle (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. founded the Fifth Republic on a basis that suited his personal style of leadership and conformed to the desires of many French people. Under the Constitution of 1958, the president and premier were granted extensive powers, whereas those of the Assembly were rescinded. He knew well the history of his country and acted out of concern for France's greatness and position in the world, an understanding that can best been seen in his relationship with Winston Churchill.
As president of the Fifth Republic, de Gaulle's first task was to work on the country's economy and on the pressing issues of foreign policy. Recognizing nationalistic trends within the disintegrating colonial empire, he granted independence to all13 French African colonies. Only the bitterly contested Algerian War continued on until 1962, when Algeria was finally granted its independence by referendum.
After the referendum on Algerian independence, de Gaulle named Georges Pompidou as prime minister. Shortly after that, he managed to change the way the president is elected from an electoral system to a system of universal suffrage, although this move was not strongly supported by many politicians,
In 1965, de Gaulle was elected to a second seven-year term, winning out over Socialist contender François Mitterand. Seeking to restore France to its former grandeur, de Gaulle made a number of decisions that put France at odds with its allies. For example, he decided that France should have its own atom bomb and repeatedly blocked Britain's attempts to join the European Economic Community. In 1966 de Gaulle withdrew France from the integrated military command of NATO.
In May 1968 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., de Gaulle faced a very difficult period. Student riots set off protests against the government that spread to other sectors, reflecting a conflict of generations and a rejection of traditional French values. De Gaulle was able to pacify the mob with the help of the Communists, who denounced the rebels as false revolutionaries. It was largely in reaction to this political upheaval and negative results in a referendum that de Gaulle resigned from office in April, 1969, and returned to Colombey-les-deux-Églises, where he died suddenly in on November 9, 1970, while in the middle of writing his memoirs.
Georges Pompidou (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. served as Prime Minister until de Gaulle replaced him after the April 8, 1962 Referendum on Algeria. When de Gaulle resigned in 1969 after voters rejected the proposed reforms that would have transformed the Senate into an advisory council and extended powers to the regional councils, elections were held and Pompidou became the new president by a comfortable majority. Where de Gaulle had been intransigent and conservative in his desire to keep France independent, Pompidou was more diplomatic. He agreed to allow Britain into the European Common Market and during his tenure, which was overshadowed by his suffering from leukemia that did not become public until shortly before his death in 1974, Francois Mitterand and the Socialists gained seats in the Assembly. The Left blamed Pompidou's laissez-faire policies for France's drift towards inflation and high unemployment that engulfed the rest of Europe.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1981)
Pompidou's death before the end of his seven-year term called for new elections, which pitted Socialist François Mitterand and the coalition of the Left, which included the Communists, against the candidate of the Independent Republicans on the Right, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Giscard won the election and went on to introduce important reforms that would bring the advanced liberal society he promised. He introduced tax reforms, passed legislation on divorce, abortion, and lowered the voting age to 18. On the international front, he supported the European Economic Community, the creation of a European Council and monetary system, and was also open to the demands of ecologists, all the while continuing de Gaulle's nuclear program and maintaining friendly relations with Germany and the US. But the OPEC crisis of 1974 and the world recession affected the performance of the French economy. As a remedy, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. was replaced by Raymond Barre.
Giscard's popularity waned over the years as Barre's economic plan failed to produce a recovery, the birthrate declined, and an array of social problems ensued, including juvenile delinquency. Mitterand and the Left continued their invectives, capitalizing on a story reported in the French satirical newspaperLe Canard enchaîné (The Chained Duck) that Giscard had once accepted a substantial gift of diamonds from the cannibal emperor of the Central African Republic Bokassa. This scandal, coupled with Giscard's increasingly distant, authoritarian stance, cost him re-election to a second seven-year term in 1981, won by Socialist François Mitterand and the coalition of the Left (Mermier, pp. 97-98).
François Mitterrand (1981-1995)
The Socialist victory was met with great jubilation -- dancing on the Place de la Bastille in Paris, champagne, and a generally positive feeling about the political turn France had taken to the Left. With François Mitterrand (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. at the helm, the decades-old challenger to Gaullism was finally to have its chance to lead the French Republic forward. The 1958 Constitution allowed the new president to exercise the full extent of his powers by immediately dissolving the Assembly and calling for new elections in order to garner more Socialist seats. Mitterrand also appointed four Communists to serve in his ministry, thereby consolidating his grip on the state. Meanwhile, the hard-core Communist party was softening as many working class people saw their interests being addressed under the Socialist government and joined that voting bloc. Socialist mayor from Lille Pierre Mauroy was named Prime Minister. Once the basic changes were in place, the following reforms were instituted to improve the lives of working people:
· the minimum wage and social security benefits were raised
· the work week was shortened and an additional week of paid vacation (now five) was added
· large fortunes were taxed
· large industries and private banks were nationalized
· power was decentralized from Paris to 22 regions
On the international scene, Mitterrand sought solutions to:
· the ongoing civil war in Rwanda
· the crisis in Bosnia and Serbia
As Mitterrand's social agenda fell in place, his policies and ideals began to shift more towards the Center (a return to his earlier leanings), bringing about a change in party leadership and the replacement of Mauroy by Laurent Fabius as Prime Minister. Mitterrand's move to the Right hurt his popularity in the legislative elections of 1986 and was also a boon to the founder the extreme right wing Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., which was becoming more popular in large urban centers, especially among those who opposed immigration. Fabius resigned and the new government headed by Jacques Chirac was one of cohabitation (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. . As president, Mitterrand no longer had supreme power; at best he could be an obstacle to Prime Minister Chirac' s Conservative government by refusing to sign decrees, for example (Mermier, p. 99). But when the 1988 elections took place, it was Mitterrand who won over Chirac with a 54% majority. With this victory, he was able to call for the election of a new Assembly with a relative Socialist majority and name Michel Rocard as the new prime minister. Rocard's accommodating attitude towards the Centrists troubled Mitterrand, who soon replaced him by Edith Cresson, a.k.a. the French version of Britain's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher. Her lack of political experience and deprecating racial statements put a quick end to her career despite Mitterrand's fondness for her. She was followed by Pierre Bérégovoy who subsequently resigned and committed suicide in 1993. He was succeeded byÉdouard Balladur, who was Mitterrand's second choice after Jacques Chirac was nominated but refused to return to the office, saying instead that Mitterrand should resign.
Throughout his second term Mitterrand was frequently at loggerheads with his government and the electorate. Minister of Culture Jacques Lang opposed the construction of Eurodisney (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as a negative cultural element, while Mitterand wanted to see it open to boost the sagging economy. Eurodisney did open in 1992 in Marne-La-Vallée but was initially not popular. France's entry into the European Union was also a pet project he saw barely approved by the French voters. In 1994, the Socialists lost more seats to the Centrists and also had to relinquish power in the European Parliament. On a positive note, on May 6, 1994, he and Queen Elizabeth of England inaugurated the Eurotunnel under the English Channel (La Manche).
Eurotunnel (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Unbeknownst to the French people, their president had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. As he began to appear less frequently in public, ample room was left for Jacques Chirac to wage a strong attack against the Socialist record and their candidate Lionel Jospin by promising to do something about increasing unemployment and poverty across France. Chirac was elected in 1995. Mitterrand returned to his home in Jarnac, Charente. He died in Paris a few months later, on January 8, 1996.
Jacques Chirac's election victory was a long-held goal. He had promised many things to the French electorate -- reduced working hours, higher taxes on speculative earnings, bring polluting industries into compliance with environmental standards, and reducing the presidential term from seven years to five. With technocrat Alain Juppé, fellow graduate of the prestigious National School of Administration ( L'ENA (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. ) as prime minister, the new government was prepared to begin working on these reforms. But more urgent matters required an immediate change of focus. France had to meet the criteria for entry in the Economic and Monetary Union in accordance with the Maastricht Treaty (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., which for France meant reducing the budget deficit from 6% to 3% of the GDP by January 1999 while maintaining the value of the franc. (Mermier, p. 101) Unemployment was still high and the Social Security system in France was in crisis due to record deficits. With the French people becoming increasingly alienated by the belt-tightening reforms being proposed by the government, Chirac made a radical move and dissolved the Assembly, calling for new elections. Once again the French responded with news he dreaded and voted in the Socialists. Juppé was out and a new cohabitation government was formed with Lionel Jospin (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as prime minister.
During his tenure as prime minister, Jospin was successful at reducing the work week to 35 hours, settling two major strikes, and preparing France for the adoption of the euro without imposing any further austerity measures. Following Juppé's path, he continued with the privatization of state-owned companies, even to the point of inviting criticism in 1999 from his Left coalition partners (Communists and Greens) for being too supportive of business. Though Jospin favored France's participation in the European Union, he opposed making it a more centralized, federated organization.
In the 2002 election, Jospin was expected to make a strong showing against Chirac. Instead, Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front Party eked out second place in the first balloting, requiring a runoff between the top two candidates: himself and Chirac. Jospin retired from politics and Jacques Chirac went on to win a resounding victory and second term of office, which he held for five years rather than seven according to the Referendum of September 24, 2000.
Chirac embarked on his second term with control over the National Assembly, the Senate, and the Constitutional Council--about as much power as any elected president could hope to hold. He appointed as Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, whose project was "ensuring security for all." However, that project never materialized.
In 2004 the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE) was signed by the 25 member states of the European Union (EU). This constitution would supersede the individual treaties between member states and the EU. The constitution was ratified by 18 member states, however it was rejected by voters in France and Holland. This was a disappointing defeat for Chirac who had supported the measure believing it would promote a more unified Europe and aid in strengthening the economy. Chirac's popularity experienced a continuing downward spiral and the French president was forced to replace Raffarin. He was succeeded by Dominique de Villepin (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., a seasoned diplomat who had never run for elected office but who strongly believed in the grandeur of France. In 2009, after Chirac left office, the Treaty of Lisbon went into force. It included many of the aspects of the Constitutional Treaty but formulated as amendments to existing treaties.
Nicolas Sarkozy (2007- 2012)
Elected on May 6, 2007 for a five-year term, Nicolas Sarkozy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. was given an important mandate for change by the French people who came to the polls in record numbers to elect him in a run-off against Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal. Breaking with the "enarchy" (graduates of the École Nationale d'Administration) tradition of the Fifth-Republic, Sarkozy is not a graduate of ENA or any other of France's prestigious Grandes Écoles. A lawyer by trade, he started out as the protégé of UMP leader and former president Jacques Chirac, who recognized his talent during his term as mayor of the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly from 1983 to 2002. Chirac appointed him interior minister; he also had a brief spell as finance minister in 2004.
Sarkozy's ambitious plans for France included: encouraging social mobility, improving schools and making cuts in the public sector staff. He also promised to revive the work ethic, fight intolerance and move France to the forefront of economic success. Often described as tireless--hyperactive even-- Sarkozy demonstrated a combative attitude, ready to take on the problems at hand. More of an Atlanticist than his predecessors, he was open to stronger relations with United States, though like his countrymen in general, he was opposed the US invasion of Iraq. On the world stage, he opposed Turkey's acceptance into the European Union and favored the sharing of nuclear technology with Arab states.
Sarkozy's constant courtship of the media became a concern to some French people. A person who he would emulate in this regard is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was able to sell his political ideology via TV and the press. Whereas traditional French cherish their privacy, Sarkozy did not shrink from the spotlight. He is the father of three children, two with his first wife and a third with Cécilia from whom he was divorced in October 2007. His third wife is the italian-born singer Carla Bruni whom he married in 2008 after a whirlwind courtship. She accompanied him on several official visits winning over the skeptical French public and becoming somewhat of an international celebrity. She has made several appearances in the American media, namely a cameo in Woody Allen's film "Midnight in Paris" and an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show.
Carla Bruni on Ellen (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
François Hollande (2012-2017)
Socialist François Hollande (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in May 2012. He promised to put the economy back on track, focusing on growth rather than the austerity measures that Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European nations advocated as tough medicine in the face of the eurozone debt crisis. At home, Hollande's top priority was employment. He also promised to address the problem of France's public finances, saying: "We will control spending, make savings." Unlike Sarkozy, however, he did not share the view that a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget should be sought.
His greatest challenges, undoubtedly, were the economic stagnation that plagued France (as well as Europe) and the series of terrorist attacks that occurred on French soil during his time in office. As far as accomplishments, Hollande legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, reduced unemployment, and passed the "millionaire's tax." Due to low approval ratings, he chose not to seek another term as president in the 2017 elections.
Emmanuel Macron (2017-present)
Emmanuel Macron assumed office on May 14, 2017. He is the youngest president in the history of France. A protégé of François Hollande, he held the position of Minister of Economy, Industry, and Digital Affairs in the previous administration. In 2016 he formed the centrist political party En Marche! (roughly translated as Forward! or On the Move!). His platform centered on help for farmers, the working class, and the unemployed, as well as entrepreneurs and industry. Macron's strategy includes tax cuts, job training, a shift to renewable energy, and addressing political corruption. As far as his personal life, Macron's wife Brigitte, whom he married in 2007, is one of his closest advisors and is 25 years his senior.
Sauvigny, Bertier de and David H. Pinkney. History of France. Forum Press, 1983 Mermier, Guy R. France: Past and Present. Peter Lang, 2000.
: Past and Present. Peter Lang, 2000.
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