The impetus behind the creation of the Fifth Republic was the Algerian Crisis. Although France had since parted with many of her colonies, such as many of those in Western Africa[?] and Southeast Asia, she still retained Algeria, which had a large French population.
The former general Charles de Gaulle used the crisis as an opportunity to create a new French government with the stronger office of President. Until recently, French Presidents had a very long term (7 years, now reduced to 5 years), and they still have more internal power than most of their European counterparts.
See also: Politics of France
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump