Fifth Republic, system of government in France from 1958. Under the constitution crafted by Charles de Gaulle with the help of Michel Debré, executive power was increased at the expense of the National Assembly. In 1959 de Gaulle was inaugurated as the first president of the Fifth Republic, with Debré as his prime minister. In 1962 de Gaulle pushed through a constitutional amendment that provided for direct popular election of the president, and in 1965 he became the first French president elected by popular vote since 1848. He was succeeded by Georges Pompidou (1969–74), Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974–81), François Mitterrand (1981–95), Jacques Chirac (1995–2007), Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–12), François Hollande (2012–17), and Emmanuel Macron (2017– ).