It also saw the beginning of the rapprochement with France's longtime enemy Germany, which led to Franco-German co-operation and eventually to the European Union.

Moreover, the government proved unable to make effective decisions regarding decolonization of the numerous remaining French colonies.

Wartime leader Charles de Gaulle returned from retirement to preside over a transitional administration empowered to design a new French constitution.

For the 1946 elections, the Rally of Left Republicans (Rassemblement des gauches républicaines, RGR), which encompassed the Radical-Socialist Party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance and other conservative parties, unsuccessfully attempted to oppose the Christian democrat and socialist MRP–SFIO–PCF alliance.

After a new legislative election in June 1946, the Christian democrat Georges Bidault assumed leadership of the Cabinet.

[2] France now took a leadership position in unifying western Europe, working closely with Konrad Adenauer of West Germany.

In 1944, De Gaulle introduced a dirigiste economic policy, which included substantial state control over a capitalist economy, which was followed by 30 years of unprecedented growth.

The United States helped revive the French economy with the Marshall Plan (1948–1951), giving France $2.3 billion with no repayment.

[5] It provided urgently needed funding for modernizing transport systems, electricity generation, and basic industries including cement, coal, and steel.

The plan required a modernization of French industrial and managerial systems, free trade, and friendly economic relations with West Germany.

[7] According to various studies, the real purchasing power of the average French worker's salary went up by 170% between 1950 and 1975, while overall private consumption increased by 174% in the period 1950-1974.

As noted by the historians Jean Blondel and Donald Geoffrey Charlton in 1974, If it is still the case that France lags in the number of its telephones, working-class housing has improved beyond recognition and the various 'gadgets' of the consumer society–from television to motor cars–are now purchased by the working class on an even more avid basis than in other Western European countries.

Thomas Piketty describes the Trente Glorieuses as an exceptional "catch up" period following the world wars.

However, the United States moved in and provided large-scale financial, military and economic support for South Vietnam.

His main power was to propose a Prime Minister, who was subject to election by the National Assembly before forming a Cabinet.

[18] It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Further complications came when a section of the French Army rebelled and openly backed the Algérie française movement to defeat separation.

De Gaulle, who had announced his retirement from politics a decade before, placed himself in the midst of the crisis, calling on the nation to suspend the government and create a new constitutional system.

On 29 May 1958, French politicians agreed upon calling on De Gaulle to take over the government as prime minister.