Macron II e l'evoluzione della V Repubblica in prospettiva storica

This article aims at investigating the beginning of Macron’s second presidency within the historical and political evolution of French Fifth Republic. The political framework that consolidates during the Gaullist decade succeeds in surviving the economic crisis of the middle 70s, but most importantly witnesses the rise of political alternation, thanks to François Mitterrand’s victory. While the 5th Republic demonstrates all his capacity to adapt from a political and institutional perspective, the changes in the so-called affluent society together with the end of Cold War put a strain on the political system born in 1958. This article tries to outline the signs of crisis that took place in the three decades starting with the Treaty of Maastricht and ending with the not so large re-election of Emmanuel Macron. These signs are mainly to be found in the system difficulty to adapt to the challenges of globalization. The progress of the extremist political movements together with the deep crisis faced by the traditional parties of the French Fifth Republic (Gaullists and Socialists) determines the birth of a new multipolarism (tripolar?) within which the re-elected President should try to put forward his proposal of modernisation and voluntarism. After his first five years characterized by the gilets jaunes social crisis, Covid crisis, and the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, in this second term President Macron will have to clarify both the direction of his voluntarism and the recomposition of the party system of the Fifth French Republic.