The party that wins the legislative elections governs, thus usually for 5 years. When a new president is elected, he can dissolve parliament and until now alwyas gets a majority on the same side as himself. when the president was elected for 7 years, the 5 year vote was often hostile to those in power, and you'd have "cohabitation" of the president from one camp and the government from the other. In 1995, Chirac kept the parliament from 1993. He decidedto dissolve parliament in 1997, one year early, and unexpectedly lost, thus leading to 5 years under Jospin. The right won both the presidential and the parliamentary elections in 2002 and has been governing since.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes