Populism is sweeping much of the West: this is the particular version shaped by France’s history. The Fifth Republic was meant to reassure a people always nervous about their own capacity for ...

The closest France has come since is the Fifth Republic, now in its 66th year. Its architect General de Gaulle – a closet monarchist – only accepted a return to power in 1958 to save the ...

France itself, in a record turnout ... any unwieldy combination of quarreling political parties in forging his Fifth Republic. Much more important, to a man so stiff-necked about legality ...

Inevitably, many cited the crisis of 1958, which ushered in the Fifth Republic, or the crisis of 1940, when France’s military defeat bore the Vichy regime. However, there’s another historical crisis — ...

La France Insoumise goes further, rejecting Nato and seeking to replace the Fifth Republic with a Sixth whose outlines are currently somewhat nebulous. The far right seemed the more immediate danger.

France’s political crisis is at a point that could lead to ‘the end of the Fifth Republic as we know it,’ warns academic Joseph Downing France’s political crisis is at a point that could ...

Read more Subscribers only Snap elections: Why France could become ungovernable ... that have been unheard of since the birth of the Fifth Republic. The president's ability to guarantee the ...