France 1958: The Algerian War escalates, the left-liberal government implodes, and power is handed over to General Charles de Gaulle. In October, he inaugurates the Fifth Republic - and the French left thus acknowledges its powerlessness. The Socialists did not prevent the conservative general's rise to power; in fact, they even contributed to it. The Communists are also isolated and struggle with their Stalinist legacy. Some comrades no longer recognize their socialist movement and decide to build a new left movement. They want to openly oppose de Gaulle and the war, discard "outdated" left ideologies, and create a "laboratory" for new left thinking. Party members from the old Communists, Socialists, and Trotskyists, as well as artists, philosophers, and writers, became part of this heterogeneous movement, which is now known as the New Left.