ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to provide an overview of the recent history, role and behaviour of political parties under the Fifth Republic. Across time, organisations held largely responsible by the Republic’s founder, Charles de Gaulle, for the collapse of its predecessor, and consequently sidelined in the constitution and its founding statutes, have inevitably re-established themselves in French political life, playing different roles as national federations, mass movements and elite power bases as vote-, policy- and office-seeking contexts have demanded. The chapter examines the role played by Emmanuel Macron’s new centrist party, La République en Marche! (LREM) in changing the party system in France, demonstrating that this party represents a major challenge to the historic two-party system of alternance, in which parties of the centre right and centre left have traditionally alternated in their dominance of the French legislature. The chapter considers the historic developments of party politics since 1958, before examining the roles played by the Parti Socialiste (PS) and the centre right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), now Les Républicains. The chapter then examines the roles played by parties of the extremes, from the far right Front National, now the Rassemblement National, through to the far left, with La France Insoumise. The chapter examines the frequent tensions at work between national and local structures of political parties, anticipating the likely challenges for Macron’s LREM in the future.
