The election of the president by direct universal suffrage: the 1962 reform

Since 1965, French voters have directly elected their president. This change, championed by General de Gaulle, was adopted by referendum on 28 October 1962, after a political crisis and a legal debate that remains contested.

The 1958 system: an electoral college of grand electors

In its original version, the Constitution provided for the president to be elected by an electoral college of around 80,000 grand electors: parliamentarians, general councillors and representatives of municipal councils. This is how Charles de Gaulle was elected on 21 December 1958.

This method relied mainly on elected officials from rural communes. For de Gaulle, it did not give the president sufficient legitimacy to exercise his role as arbiter, particularly after him.

The trigger: the Petit-Clamart assassination attempt

On 22 August 1962, General de Gaulle survived an assassination attempt carried out by supporters of French Algeria at Petit-Clamart. A few weeks later, on 20 September 1962, he announced a referendum to have the president elected by direct universal suffrage.

A contested procedure

To revise the Constitution, Article 89 in principle provides for a parliamentary vote before any referendum. De Gaulle chose Article 11, which allows a bill to be submitted directly to the people. Many legal experts, Senate President Gaston Monnerville and a large part of parliamentarians consider this route unconstitutional.

On 5 October 1962, the National Assembly adopted a motion of no confidence against the government of Georges Pompidou, by 280 votes. It was the first no-confidence vote of the Fifth Republic. De Gaulle responded by dissolving the Assembly on 9 October.

The referendum of 28 October 1962

The proposal was approved with about 62% of votes cast. The legislative elections of November 1962 then gave a majority to the General's supporters. The law was promulgated on 6 November 1962.

The same day, the Constitutional Council, seized by Gaston Monnerville, declared itself incompetent. It considered that laws adopted by referendum constitute "the direct expression of national sovereignty" and fall outside its review. The debate over the regularity of the procedure was therefore never settled by a judge.

What the reform changed

The law of 6 November 1962 rewrote Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution and set the rules of the election:

• election by direct universal suffrage, with an absolute majority of votes cast;
• a second round between the two candidates who finish first, if no candidate wins a majority in the first round;
• candidates presented by elected officials through sponsorships (parrainages), initially 100 and 500 since 1976;
• oversight of the election and proclamation of results by the Constitutional Council.

1965, the first direct election

The first election by direct universal suffrage was held on 5 and 19 December 1965. General de Gaulle, forced into a second round, defeated François Mitterrand with 55.2% of the vote. Jean Lecanuet finished third in the first round.

Since then, eleven presidential elections have been held by direct universal suffrage, from 1965 to 2022. All were decided in the second round.

A reform that transformed the regime

Direct election gave the president a legitimacy of his own, comparable to that of deputies. It strengthened the personalisation of political life and organised parties around the conquest of the Élysée. For its supporters, it allows citizens to choose the head of the executive directly. Its critics see it as a concentration of power in a single person. This question remains central to debates on the future of the institutions.