Best French Fifth Republic Presidents

Charles de Gaulle wins 79% of his duels and tops the French Fifth Republic Presidents ranking ahead of Jacques Chirac.

De Gaulle dominates the field with an ELO rating of 1447, leaving a substantial 140 points between himself and second-placed Chirac. The podium is completed by François Mitterrand at 1251 points, with Georges Pompidou close behind at 1227. The ranking reveals a clear divide: the top five presidents all score above 1170 ELO, while the bottom registers a steep fall. Emmanuel Macron sits at rank 7 with 1122 points, but the sharpest collapse belongs to François Hollande, who trails at rank 8 with just 928 ELO and an 18% win rate. The gap between Macron and Hollande—194 points—speaks to how the community judges recent leadership against the founding figures of the Fifth Republic.

This ranking draws on 1072 duels judged by 69 players across 8 contenders, and was last updated on 11 October 2026. Each duel asks voters to choose the more charismatic president, and the results sketch a hierarchy where wartime leadership and political longevity appear to carry weight. If you want to shape this ranking, cast your vote and position your own choices against the current consensus.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →