PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
(1944 – 1946)
Preamble
Charles de Gaulle (a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II) rejected the armistice concluded by Maréchal Philippe Pétain and Nazi Germany, and had escaped to Britain, exhorted the French to resist in his BBC broadcast "Appeal of 18 June" (Appel du 18 juin), which had a stirring effect on morale throughout France and its colonies, though initially relatively few French forces responded to De Gaulle's call.
The Free French Forces, individuals or military units who joined "Free France", fought Axis and Vichy troops, and served on battlefronts everywhere from the Middle East to Indochina and North Africa. They remained a small force until 1942, by which time an underground anti-Nazi Résistance movement had sprung up in France.
In his efforts to obtain the support of the Résistance, de Gaulle changed the name of his movement to "Forces Françaises Combattantes" (Fighting French Forces) and sent his emissary Jean Moulin to France to try to unify all the various Résistance groups in France under de Gaulle's leadership. Moulin came close to accomplishing this in May 1943 with his establishment of the Conseil Nationale de la Résistance (National Council of the Resistance).
In June 1943 a Comité Français de Libération Nationale (French Committee of National Liberation) was constituted in Algiers, with Giraud and de Gaulle as its joint presidents. But de Gaulle soon outmaneuvered Giraud, whose resignation in the spring of 1944 left de Gaulle in supreme control of the entire French war effort outside of Metropolitan France. More and more Résistance groups were meanwhile acknowledging de Gaulle's leadership.
In August 1944 the Free French 1st Army, under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, took part in the Allies' invasion of southern France, driving thence northeastward into Alsace before joining in the Western Allies' final thrust into Germany. The Résistance groups, now organized as Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior), mounted an anti-German insurrection in Paris, and the Free French 2nd Armoured Division under General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc drove into Paris to consummate the liberation. On Aug. 26, 1944, de Gaulle entered Paris in triumph.
The Provisional Government
The Provisional Government of the French Republic (Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française or GPRF) was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic.
Following the Battle of France in 1940, the state of Vichy France was established under the rule of Philippe Pétain. However, after Operation Overlord (code name for the Battle of Normandy), the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise pocket (the siege of the Allied forces to Nazi Germany in Normandy, in 12-21 August 1944), the Vichy regime dissolved. Then, as the Allied front lines moved through France, jurisdiction was seized by the provisional government under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle, from 1944 to 1946.
With most of the political class discredited and containing many members who had more or less collaborated with the enemy, Gaullism and Communism became the most popular political forces in France.
The GPRF was dominated by the "tripartisme" alliance, between the French Communist Party (PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) and the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), led by Georges Bidault.
This alliance between the three political parties lasted until the May 1947 crisis during which Maurice Thorez, vice-premier, and four other Communist ministers were expelled from the government, both in France and in Italy. Along with the acceptance of the Marshall Plan, refused by countries that had fallen under the influence of the USSR, this marked the official beginning of the Cold War in these countries.
The provisional government considered that the Vichy government had been unconstitutional and that all its actions had thus been illegal. All statutes, laws, regulations and decisions by the Vichy government were thus made null and void. However, since mass cancellation of all decisions taken by Vichy, including many that could have been taken as well by republican governments, was impractical, it was decided that any repeal was to be expressly acknowledged by the government. A number of laws and acts were however explicitly repealed, including all constitutional acts, all laws discriminating against Jews, all acts against "secret societies" (e.g. Freemasons), and all acts creating special tribunals.
Collaborationist paramilitary and political organizations, such as the Milice and the Service d'ordre légionnaire, were also disbanded.
The provisional government also took steps to replace local governments, including governments that had been suppressed by the Vichy regime, through new elections or by extending the terms of those who had been elected no later than 1939.
Meanwhile, negotiations took place over the proposed new constitution, which was to be put to a referendum. De Gaulle advocated a presidential system of government, and criticized the reinstatement of what he pejoratively called "the parties system".
De Gaulle resigned in January 1946 and was replaced by Félix Gouin (SFIO). Ultimately only the French Communist Party (PCF) and the socialist SFIO supported the draft constitution, which envisaged a form of government based on unicameralism, but this was rejected in the referendum of 5 May 1946.
A new draft of the Constitution was written, which this time proposed the establishment of a bicameral form of government. Léon Blum (SFIO) headed the GPRF from 1946 to 1947.
After a new legislative election in June 1946, the Christian democrat Georges Bidault assumed leadership of the Cabinet.
Despite de Gaulle's so-called discourse of Bayeux of 16 June 1946 in which he denounced the new institutions, the new draft was approved by the French people, with 53% of voters voting in favor (with an abstention rate of 31%) in the referendum held on 13 October 1946.
This culminated in the establishment in the following year of the French Fourth Republic.
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