1965 French presidential election

none August 2021 France presidential 1958 French presidential election 1958 1969 French presidential election 1969 5 December 1965 (first round)19 December 1965 (second round) 84.75% (first round) 84.32% (second round) Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F015892-0010, Charles de Gaulle (cropped 2).jpg Charles de Gaulle Union for the New Republic 13,083,699 55.20% François Mitterrand 1968.jpg François Mitterrand Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left 10,619,735 44.80% 300px First round results by department 300px Second round results by department 2 President Charles de Gaulle Union for the New Republic Charles de Gaulle Union for the New Republic Presidential elections were held in France on 5 December 1965, with a second round on 19 December. They were the first direct presidential elections in the Fifth Republic and the first since the Second Republic in 1848. It had been widely expected that incumbent president Charles de Gaulle would be re-elected, but the election was notable for the unexpectedly strong performance of his left-wing challenger and future president François Mitterrand. Background This was the second presidential election since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. Under the first draft of the 1958 constitution, the president was to be elected by an electoral college, in order to appease concerns about de Gaulle's allegedly authoritarian or Bonapartist tendencies. There had been a historical reluctance in France to have a directly elected president, because Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (the winner of the 1848 presidential election) had seized power in the 1851 coup d'état, before the end of his term. However, a direct presidential election had always been essential to de Gaulle's political vision, and he had it adopted by the 1962 referendum. Candidates right|thumb|% of vote for Charles de Gaulle, first round When the electoral campaign started, the majority of political commentators believed that de Gaulle would succeed in winning re-election in a single round. Many of the leaders of the opposition parties were therefore reluctant to challenge de Gaulle. Furthermore, some potential candidates such as former Prime Minister Pierre Mendès-France declined to run, due to their opposition to direct presidential elections. De Gaulle did not expect a significant challenger, announced his candidacy only one month before the first round of voting, and did not lead a very active campaign. The centre-left paper L'Express campaigned for the nomination of a candidate of the non-Communist opposition. One potential challenger identified was Gaston Defferre, Mayor of Marseille and an internal opponent of the then leader of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party), Guy Mollet. In his municipality, Defferre led a coalition composed of the SFIO, the Radical Party, and the centre-right Popular Republican Movement (MRP). Nevertheless, the leaders of these parties refused to support his candidacy. The failure of Defferre's candidacy led to other politicians entering the race. The MRP leader Jean Lecanuet was nominated by his party and the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP) to represent the centre. He ran a liberal and pro-European campaign, influenced by John F. Kennedy, and criticizing the "archaism" and the "nationalism" of de Gaulle in a bid to rally younger and more moderate conservatives. François Mitterrand, a former Fourth Republic minister who did not belong to any party, offered to run as the sole candidate of the left. Mitterrand had been an opponent to de Gaulle since 1958 (like the Communists but contrary to the SFIO leadership) and had written the book The Permanent Coup d'État, strongly criticising de Gaulle's policies. He obtained the support from several left-wing parties, including the French Communist Party (PCF), which wished to get out of its isolation. Results Despite running a somewhat lacklustre campaign, de Gaulle won the first round by over three million votes. However, he came up short of a majority, forcing a runoff being held two weeks later, pitting him against Mitterrand. Tixier-Vignancour supported Mitterrand in the second round, Lecanuet called on his voters not to vote for de Gaulle. De Gaulle defeated Mitterrand by a decisive margin in the runoff. However, Mitterrand performed better than expected, one of the first warnings that de Gaulle's popularity was waning. De Gaulle retained his Prime Minister Georges Pompidou but decided to carry out a cabinet reshuffle. He dismissed his Economy Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, thus damaging relations in the majority coalition with Giscard's party, the Independent Republicans, the last allies of the Gaullists. Charles de Gaulle(incumbent) Union for the New Republic 10828521 13083699 François Mitterrand Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left 7694005 10619735 Jean Lecanuet Popular Republican Movement 3777120 Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour Tixier-Vignancour Committees 1260208 Miscellaneous far right Pierre Marcilhacy European Liberal Party 415017 Miscellaneous right Marcel Barbu Miscellaneous left 279685 248360 668213 28910581 28902704 Constitutional CourtConstitutional CourtConstitutional Court See also President of France Politics of France French presidential elections under the Fifth Republic Presidency of Charles de Gaulle References Further reading Williams, Philip M., David Goldey, and Martin Harrison. French politicians and elections 1951–1969 (Cambridge UP, 1970). France President Category:Presidential elections in France Category:Presidency of Charles de Gaulle