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The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the ashes of the French Fourth Republic, replacing a parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system.

The impetus behind the creation of the Fifth Republic was the Algiers crisis of 1958. Although France had since parted with many of its colonies, many of them in West Africa and Southeast Asia, Algeria was part of France and sent representatives to the French parliament. Its distance from the French mainland and the cultural differences inherent in being on another continent and largely with a different dominant religion led to rising pressure for separation from the rest of France. The situation was complicated by the dispute being not a classic struggle for a colony to gain independence but for a part of a country to secede from the rest. At the same time, there were those in Algeria who wanted to stay part of France, so the Algerian War became not just a separatist movement but had elements of a civil war. Further complications came when a section of the French army rebelled and openly backed the "Algérie française" movement to defeat separation.

Charles de Gaulle used the crisis to create a new French governmental system. In the Fourth Republic, governments had repeatedly fallen since the second world war as no party gained an overall majority. The position of president had little of its modern power. De Gaulle proposed that presidents should be elected for seven years, since reduced to five, and that they should have executive powers to run the country in consultation with a prime minister whom he would appoint from elected parliamentarians.

His plans were approved by 79.2% of those who voted in a referendum on September 28, 1958. Since each new constitution establishes a new republic, France moved from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic.

Main article: 1960s in France

The president was initially elected by an electoral college, but in 1962 de Gaulle proposed that the president should be directly elected by the citizens in a referendum. Although the method and intents of de Gaulle in that referendum were contested by most political groups except for the Gaullists, the change was approved by the French electorate.

The president is now elected every five years in two rounds of voting. The first round is open to all and will establish a president if any candidate gets an overall majority. If there is no winner in the first round, the two candidates with the greatest number of votes go to a second round.

De Gaulle condemned militant attacks committed in both Algeria and mainland France but angered the rebel section of the army and "Algérie française" supporters, including the latter-day Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, by arranging a peace with the nationalist rebels. Algeria became independent on July 5, 1962.

• Constitution of France
• French First Republic (1792 - 1804)
• French Second Republic (1848 - 1852)
• French Third Republic (1870 - 1940)
• French Fourth Republic (1946 - 1958)
• Government of France
• Politics of France