| Nº | Portrait | Name(Birth–Death) | Term of office;Electoral mandates | Time in office | Political party |
| 18 | | Charles de Gaulle(1890–1970) | 8 January 1959 | 28 April 1969 | 10 years, 110 days | Union for the New Republic(renamed Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic in 1967) |
| 1958, 1965 |
| Leader of the Free French Forces, 1940–1944. President of the Provisional Government, 1944–1946. Appointed President of the Council by René Coty in May 1958, to resolve the crisis of the Algerian War. Supported by referendum, he adopted a new Constitution of France, thus founding the Fifth Republic. Easily elected to the presidency in the 1958 election by electoral college, he took office the following month; having modified the presidential election procedure in the 1962 referendum, he was reelected by universal suffrage in the 1965 election. Launched the Force de dissuasion in 1961. He signed the Élysée Treaty in 1963, building Franco-German cooperation, a key to European integration. In 1966, he withdrew France from NATO integrated military command and had American military personnel stationed on French soil sent home. Supported Quebec sovereignty. Faced the May 68 civil unrest. Resigned following the failure of the 1969 referendum on regionalisation. |
| — | | Alain PoherActing(1909–1996) | 28 April 1969 | 20 June 1969 | 53 days | Democratic Centre |
| Interim President of France, as President of the Senate. Stood in the 1969 election but was defeated in the second round by Georges Pompidou. |
| 19 | | Georges Pompidou(1911–1974) | 20 June 1969 | 2 April 1974 | 4 years, 286 days | Union of Democrats for the Republic |
| 1969 |
| Prime Minister under Charles de Gaulle, 1962–1968. Elected to the presidency in the 1969 election against centrist Alain Poher. Favoured European integration. Supported economic modernisation and industrialisation, most notably through the TGV high-speed rail project. Faced the 1973 oil crisis. Died in office of Waldenström macroglobulinemia, two years before the end of his term. |
| — | | Alain PoherActing(1909–1996) | 2 April 1974 | 27 May 1974 | 55 days | Democratic Centre |
| Interim President of France again, as President of the Senate. Did not stand in the 1974 election. |
| 20 | | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing(1926–2020) | 27 May 1974 | 21 May 1981 | 6 years, 359 days | Independent Republicans (renamed Republican Party in 1977)(within the Union for French Democracy from 1978) |
| 1974 |
| Founder of the Independent Republicans and later the Union for French Democracy in his efforts to unify the centre-right, he served in several Gaullist governments. Narrowly elected in the 1974 election, he instigated numerous reforms, including the lowering of the age of civil majority from 21 to 18 and legalisation of abortion. He soon faced a global economic crisis and rising unemployment. Although the polls initially gave him a lead, he was defeated in the 1981 election by François Mitterrand, partly due to disunion within the right. |
| 21 | | François Mitterrand(1916–1996) | 21 May 1981 | 17 May 1995 | 13 years, 361 days | Socialist Party |
| 1981, 1988 |
| Candidate of a united left-wing ticket in the 1965 election, he founded the Socialist Party in 1971. Having narrowly lost in 1974, he was finally elected in 1981. Mitterrand supervised a series of Great Works, the best known of which is the Louvre Pyramid. He instigated the abolition of the death penalty. After the right-wing victory in the 1986 legislative election, he named Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister, thus beginning the first cohabitation. Reelected in the 1988 election against Chirac, he was again forced to cohabit with Édouard Balladur following the 1993 legislative election. He retired in 1995 after the conclusion of his second term. He was the first left-wing President of the Fifth Republic; his presidential tenure was the longest of any French Republic. |
| 22 | | Jacques Chirac(1932–2019) | 17 May 1995 | 16 May 2007 | 11 years, 364 days | Rally for the Republic (until 2002)Union for a Popular Movement (from 2002) |
| 1995, 2002 |
| Prime Minister, 1974–1976; upon resignation, founded the Rally for the Republic. Eliminated in the first round of the 1981 election, he again served as Prime Minister, 1986–1988. Defeated in the 1988 election, he was elected in 1995. He engaged in social reforms to counter "social fracture". In 1997, he dissolved the National Assembly; a left-wing victory in the 1997 legislative election forced him to name Lionel Jospin Prime Minister for a five-year cohabitation. Presidential terms reduced from seven to five years after approval by referendum. In 2002, he was easily reelected against Jean-Marie Le Pen. Sent troops to Afghanistan, but opposed the Iraq War. Declined to seek a third term in 2007 and retired from political life. |
| `UNIQ--templatestyles-00000080-QINU` 23 | | Nicolas Sarkozy(b. 1955) | 16 May 2007 | 15 May 2012 | 4 years, 365 days | Union for a Popular Movement |
| 2007 |
| Served in numerous ministerial posts, 1993–1995 and 2002–2007. Easily elected to the leadership of the Union for a Popular Movement in 2004. Elected to the presidency in 2007, defeating Socialist Ségolène Royal. Soon after taking office, he introduced a new fiscal package and other laws to counter illegal immigration and recidivism. President of the Council of the EU in 2008, he defended the Treaty of Lisbon and mediated in the Russo-Georgian War; reintroduced France to NATO integrated military command; President of the G8 and G20 in 2011. At national level, he had to deal with the consequences of the Great Recession. Following the 2008 constitutional reform, he became the first President of France since Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to address the Versailles Congress on 22 June 2009. He introduced education and pension reforms. Sent troops to Libya (Operation Harmattan) in 2011. Narrowly defeated in the runoff of the 2012 election. |
| 24 | | François Hollande(b. 1954) | 15 May 2012 | 14 May 2017 | 4 years, 364 days | Socialist Party |
| 2012 |
| Served as First Secretary of the Socialist Party, 1997–2008 and President of the General Council of Corrèze, 2008–2012. Elected in 2012, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy. Legalised same-sex marriage and restricted dual mandates. Militarily intervened in Mali (Operation Serval), in the Central African Republic (Operation Sangaris) and in Iraq and Syria (Operation Chammal). Paris suffered Islamic terrorist attacks in January 2015 and November 2015, as well as Nice in July 2016. Hosted the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference. Did not seek reelection in the 2017 election, for which polls suggested his defeat in the first round. |
| 25 | | Emmanuel Macron(b. 1977) | 14 May 2017 | Incumbent(term expires on 13 May 2027) | 8 years, 176 days | La République En Marche! (renamed Renaissance in 2022) |
| 2017, 2022 |
| Served as Élysée Deputy Secretary-General, 2012–2014 and Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, 2014–2016. Easily defeated Marine Le Pen in the 2017 election in which he ran as a centrist. Youngest President in the history of France. Has encountered massive demonstrations, most notably the yellow vests protests, since 2018 over his policy orientations and style of governance. Hosted the 2019 G7 summit. Faced the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, reelected with a reduced majority against Le Pen, losing the government's ruling majority in the National Assembly. |
