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 François Mitterrand.
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👉 1965 French presidential election in the context of François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former Socialist Party First Secretary, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.
Due to family influences, Mitterrand started his political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy regime during its earlier years. Subsequently, he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office several times under the Fourth Republic. Mitterrand opposed Charles de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a politically isolated figure, he outmanoeuvred rivals to become the left's standard bearer in the 1965 and 1974 presidential elections, before being elected president in the 1981 presidential election. He was re-elected in 1988 and remained in office until 1995.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: 1965 French presidential election
- 👉 1965 French presidential election in the context of François Mitterrand
- 1965 French presidential election in the context of 1848 French presidential election
- 1965 French presidential election in the context of Convention of Republican Institutions
1965 French presidential election in the context of 1848 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held for the first time in France on 10 and 11 December 1848, electing the first and only president of the Second Republic. This election marked the birth of the Second Republic and the dramatic end of the July Monarchy, a transformation born of the February Revolution’s fervour.
The election ended in a landslide victory for Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, who won 74% of the popular vote. His appeal to peasants, conservatives, and those nostalgic for Napoleonic glory gave him a decisive edge. This was the only direct presidential election until the 1965 French presidential election under the Fifth Republic.
1965 French presidential election in the context of Convention of Republican Institutions
The Convention of Republican Institutions (French: Convention des institutions républicaines, CIR) was a socialist, republican and anti-Gaullist party in France led by François Mitterrand. The CIR, founded in early June 1964, transformed from a loosely organized club to a formal political party by April 1965, a few months before the time of Mitterrand's candidacy in the 1965 election. Roughly at the same time, the CIR played an important role in the foundation of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), which ended with the FGDS' landslide defeat to the Gaullists in the 1968 election. The CIR merged into the Socialist Party at the Epinay Congress in 1971.