In May 1958, France was near collapse. The government had fallen. The army was revolting in Algiers. The Algerian War was tearing the country apart. The Fourth Republic was on the brink of a coup. It showed its fragility through short-lived governments and chronic instability.
Amid the chaos, the name of Charles de Gaulle resurfaced. The general had been out of power for years, but he had never truly disappeared. Convinced that he embodied France itself, de Gaulle waited. He was convinced that the Fourth Republic, a parliamentary republic in which the government was structurally weak, could not survive for long. And when the crisis reached a breaking point, he stepped forward.
On May 13, 1958, in Algiers, French soldiers and settlers created a "Committee of Public Safety." They feared that Paris would abandon Algeria. They wanted a strong man, namely De Gaulle. In Paris, the government was paralysed. The risk was real: either de Gaulle took power, or the army could seize it by force. On June 1, 1958, Parliament voted. De Gaulle became Prime Minister with extraordinary powers. However, he had a specific plan: not only to resolve the Algerian crisis, but also to change the rules of the game. For him, France's weakness stemmed from its constitution. Too much power in the political parties, unstable governments, and no solid leadership. A strong executive, legitimised by the people, was needed, so he worked on a new constitution over the next few months.

The text strengthened the president's figure, entrusting him with greater powers, stability, and continuity. It was a refoundation, a new republic. On September 28, 1958, the French voted in a referendum and overwhelmingly approved the constitution. Thus was born the Fifth Republic. The president was no longer a symbolic figure, but the centre of political power. He could dissolve the Assembly, hold referendums, and direct foreign and defence policy.
In 1959, de Gaulle became the first president of the new Republic and finally governed as he had imagined. But the decisive test was the Algerian crisis. Many of his supporters expected him to keep it French. De Gaulle, however, recognised that the war was unsustainable, so he changed course and, in 1962, granted independence to the North Africans. It was a decision that divided the country and provoked attacks, but it also marked the end of a bloody conflict.
The Fifth Republic survived crises, protests, and changes in leadership, including de Gaulle's own. When he left power in 1969 after losing a referendum, he did so without forcing the issue.