List of Presidents of France

Presidents

#	Picture	Name	Term of Office; Electoral mandates		Political Party
18		Charles de Gaulle[18]	8 January 1959	28 April 1969	Union for the New Republic
			1958, 1965
			President of the Provisional Government 1944–1946. Appointed President of the Council by René Coty in May 1958, to resolve the crisis of the Algerian War. He adopted a new Constitution, thus founding the Fifth Republic. Easily elected President in the 1958 election by electoral college, he took office the following month; he was re-elected by universal suffrage in the 1965 election. In 1966, he withdrew France from NATO integrated military command, and expelled the American bases on French soil. Having refused to step down during the crisis of May 1968, he finally resigned following the failure of the 1969 referendum on regionalisation.
—		Alain Poher[19] (interim)	28 April 1969	20 June 1969	Democratic Centre
			Interim President, as President of the Senate.
19		Georges Pompidou[20]	20 June 1969	2 April 1974	Union of Democrats for the Republic
			1969
			Prime Minister under Charles de Gaulle 1962–1968. Elected President in the 1969 election against the centrist Alain Poher. Favoured European integration. Supported economic modernisation and industrialisation. Faced the 1973 oil crisis. Died in office of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, two years before the end of his mandate.
—		Alain Poher[19] (interim)	2 April 1974	27 May 1974	Democratic Centre
			Interim President, as President of the Senate.
20		Valéry Giscard d'Estaing[21]	27 May 1974	21 May 1981	Independent Republicans (1974–1977) Union for French Democracy-Republican Party (1977–1981)
			1974
			Founder of the FNRI and later the UDF in his efforts to unify the centre-right, he served in several Gaullist governments. Narrowly elected in the 1974 election, he instigated numerous reforms, including the lowering of the age of civil majority from 21 to 18, and the legalisation of abortion. He soon faced a global economic crisis and rising unemployment. Although the polls initially gave him a lead, he was beaten in the 1981 election by François Mitterrand, partly due to the disunion within the right wing.
21		François Mitterrand[22]	21 May 1981	17 May 1995	Socialist Party
			1981, 1988
			Candidate of a united left-wing ticket in the 1965 election, he founded the Socialist Party in 1971. Having narrowly lost the 1974 election, he was finally elected in the 1981 election. He instigated several reforms (abolition of the death penalty, a fifth week of paid leave for employees). After the right-wing victory in the 1986 legislative elections, he named Jacques Chirac Prime Minister, thus beginning the first cohabitation. Re-elected in the 1988 election against Chirac, he was again forced to cohabit with Édouard Balladur following the 1993 legislative elections. He retired at the 1995 election. He was the first President elected twice by universal suffrage, he remains the only left-wing President of the Fifth Republic, and his Presidential tenure was the longest of the Fifth Republic.
22		Jacques Chirac[23]	17 May 1995	16 May 2007	Rally for the Republic (1995–2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2007)
			1995, 2002
			Prime Minister 1974–1976; on resignation, founded the RPR. Eliminated in the first round of the 1981 election, he again served as Prime Minister 1986–1988. Beaten in the 1988 election, he was elected in the 1995 election. He engaged in social reforms to counter "social fracture". In 1997, he dissolved the Assemblée nationale; a left-wing victory in the 1997 legislative elections, forced him to name Lionel Jospin Prime Minister for a five-year cohabitation. Presidential terms reduced from seven to five years. In 2002, he was re-elected against the leader of the extreme right-wing Jean-Marie Le Pen. Opposed the Iraq War. He did not run in 2007, he retired from political life and returned to the Conseil constitutionnel.
23		Nicolas Sarkozy[24]	16 May 2007	Incumbent	Union for a Popular Movement
			2007
			Held various ministerial posts 1993–1995 and 2002–2007. Leader of the UMP since 2004. In the 2007 election, he topped the first round poll, and was elected in the second round against Ségolène Royal. Soon after taking office, he introduced the French fiscal package of 2007 and other laws to counter illegal immigration and recidivism. President of the Council of the EU in 2008, he defended the Treaty of Lisbon and mediated in the South Ossetia War; at national level, he had to deal with the financial crisis and its consequences. Following the 2008 constitutional reform, he became the first President since Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to address the Versailles Congress on 22 June 2009. President of the G8 and the G20 in 2011.