Editing Pierre Mendès France (section)

==Fifth Republic==
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2014}}
[[File:20.01.1962. Mendes France et Raymond Badiou. (1962) - 53Fi3369.jpg|thumb|Mendès France, against the [[Algerian War]] during a [[Unified Socialist Party (France)|PSU]] meeting in January 1962.]]
Like most of the French left, Mendès France opposed de Gaulle's seizure of power in [[May 1958 crisis (France)|May 1958]], when the mounting crisis in Algeria brought about a breakdown in the Fourth Republic system and the creation of a [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]].<ref name=BD/> He led the ''Union of Democratic Forces'', an anti-[[Gaullism|Gaullist]] group, but in the November 1958 elections he lost his seat in the Assembly. After being expelled from the Radical Party, whose majority faction supported de Gaulle, in late 1959 he joined the [[Autonomous Socialist Party (France)|Autonomous Socialist Party]] (PSA), a breakaway group from the SFIO.<ref name=BD/>

In April 1960, the PSA merged with several other groups to form the [[Unified Socialist Party (France)|Unified Socialist Party]] (PSU).<ref name=BD/> He made an unsuccessful bid to regain his seat in the National Assembly representing [[Eure]] in the 1962 election.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=154oAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J1IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7338,4987380&dq=mendes+france+eure&hl=en De Gaulle Wins In France] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108140138/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=154oAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J1IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7338,4987380&dq=mendes+france+eure&hl=en |date=8 November 2017 }}. St. Petersburg Times. 19 November 1962</ref>

In 1967 he returned to the Assembly as a PSU member for the [[Isère]], but again lost his seat in the 1968 landslide election victory of the Gaullist party [[Union of Democrats for the Republic|UDR]]. Mendès France and the PSU expressed sympathy for the sentiments and actions of the student rioters during the [[May 1968 in France|events of May 1968]],<ref name=BD/> a position unusual for a politician of his age and status. One year later, Pompidou's socialist opponent in the [[1969 French presidential election|presidential election of 1969]], [[Gaston Defferre]] of the SFIO, designated him his preferred Prime Minister prior to the election. The two campaigned together in what was the first – and so far only – dual "ticket" in a French presidential election. Defferre gained only 5% of the vote and was eliminated in the election's first round. When [[François Mitterrand]] formed a new [[French Socialist Party|Socialist Party]] in 1971, Mendès France supported him, but did not attempt another political comeback. He lived long enough to see Mitterrand elected president.