# Voting age lowered to 18 (1974)

URL: https://history-france.com/timeline/1974-voting-age-lowered-to-18
Location: France

The electorate expanded to include citizens aged eighteen to twenty. Within the broader Fifth Republic period, The 1958 Constitution created a stronger presidency and a durable Fifth Republic. Decolonization, European integration, social change, economic shocks and recurring debates over identity, secularism and the role of the state have shaped contemporary France. At this point in the timeline, the relevant governing authority is Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (President of the French Republic). Voting age lowered to 18 mattered because it changed the legal or constitutional framework within which French institutions and citizens operated. The event is positioned here so visitors can read it alongside changes in government, warfare, society, religion, culture and France’s wider international setting.

## Why it matters
Voting age lowered to 18 mattered because it changed the legal or constitutional framework within which French institutions and citizens operated.

Ruler at the time: [Valéry Giscard d’Estaing](https://history-france.com/rulers/valery-giscard-d-estaing)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia topic lookup — Voting age lowered to 18](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Voting+age+lowered+to+18&go=Go)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Voting age lowered to 18](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Voting+age+lowered+to+18)
- [Élysée — Institutions of the Fifth Republic](https://www.elysee.fr/en/french-presidency/the-institutions)