de Gaulle In 1959 de Gaulle was inaugurated as the first president of the Fifth Republic, with Debré as his prime minister. In 1962 de Gaulle pushed through a constitutional amendment that provided for direct popular election of the president, and in 1965 he became the first French president elected by popular vote since 1848.
Who became the first President of the French Republic by popular vote in 1848, became dictator after a coup in 1851, then ruled as "Emperor of the French" from 1852 to September 1870, when he was captured in the Franco-Prussian War?
