Georges Pompidou: the Gaullist Heritage, and the Heritage of ’68

Abstract

Georges Pompidou lives in the collective memory, but as the least remembered of French Presidents; caught, as it were, between his illustrious predecessor, Charles de Gaulle and his successor, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the latter still politically active 30 years after leaving the Elysée Palace.¹ Yet Pompidou’s presidency was one of the most decisive and far-reaching moments in the history of the regime. It was the moment when the regime and the solidity of the institutions established in 1958 and 1962 by de Gaulle were put to the test. Observers and commentators thought the institutions would not outlive de Gaulle. In the event, the succession went relatively smoothly, and the regime subsequently embedded itself over time.