French poltician and General. An officer by training, Charles de Gaulle pursued a military career during the First World War and between the two wars, while publishing several works of political history and military strategy. At the start of the Second World War, he commanded an armoured division. On the 6th of June 1940, mid-battle, he was named Under-Secretary of National Defence and set himself against supporters of the Armistice. He arrived in London on the 17th of June to continue the fight against Germany; the following day he launched his “18th of June Call”, inciting all French people to back the Allies. As and when French territory was liberated, he imposed himself as the legitimate leader, under the title of President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). In disagreement with the political parties, which he reproached for wanting to go back to the pre-1940 “system” (biased decision-making, triumphant parliamentarism, weakness of the Executive, Ministerial instability), he stepped down in January 1946.

He only regained power on the 1st of June 1958, following the rebellion of Algiers and the deterioration of the situation in Algeria, and then the entire French Departments. The new constitution was approved by referendum in September, giving France a regime that ensured the primacy of the Executive and made the President of the Republic the keystone of all public institutions. The Fifth Republic was born. Charles de Gaulle was elected President of the French Republic in December 1958. Negotiations with the Algerian leaders led to Algerian independence in 1962. General de Gaulle practiced a foreign policy that led to affirmation of the independence of France from the two big powers of the time and reached reconciliation with Germany. He was re-elected President in 1965, but this time through universal suffrage, but the economic, social and cultural malaise present in France for several years exploded in May 1968. This crisis caught de Gaulle unprepared; he was only able to call a halt to it in June by winning the long-awaited legislative elections. He abandoned power the following year following defeat in a referendum on regionalisation and reform of the Senate.