back to the day when the French chose to directly elect their president

60 years ago, to the day, Friday October 28, the French answered the following question: should the President of the Republic be elected by universal suffrage? The “yes” had largely won. At the time, it was General de Gaulle who had established this little revolution, an election by universal suffrage and not by a college of 80,000 elected officials. The objective was to give the head of state popular legitimacy.

The change had been strongly denounced. 60 years later, this direct election is still controversial. This is almost an exception in Europe, where only three other countries, Portugal, Austria and Finland do the same. The criticisms are as follows: excessive concentration of power to the detriment of Parliament, and personalization sometimes considered excessive. However, the presidential election remains the favorite election of the French, the one that mobilizes the most.