De Gaulle soon preferred to be elected by direct popular vote, which would give him a stronger political position, and proposed that the Constitution be amended.

Instead, de Gaulle used Article 11 of the Constitution, which allows the Prime Minister, then Georges Pompidou, to request the President to submit to a referendum a bill in certain areas of law, including "the organization of public powers".

The council however ruled that it fell outside of its jurisdiction to strike down a reform voted by the French people, thus upholding de Gaulle's action.

[5] Monnerville went as far as to use the strong word of forfaiture ("abuse of authority") against the behaviour of Prime Minister Pompidou, who had accepted the referendum project.

On 4 October 1962, the Assembly passed a motion of no confidence in the Government,[10] resulting in the automatic resignation of the Prime Minister (per article 49-2); this was the only successful vote of no-confidence of the Fifth Republic until 2024.