The Vichy Government

The Vichy Government

Summary

Vichy France, or the Vichy regime, was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. It succeeded the Third Republic. The "French state" (L'Ð"‰tat FranÐ"§ais), as it called itself in contrast with the "French Republic", was proclaimed by Marshal Philippe PÐ"©tain, following the military defeat of France by Nazi Germany during World War II, and the vote by the National Assembly on July 10, 1940, to grant extraordinary powers to PÐ"©tain, who held the title of "President of the Council" instead of President of France.

Vichy France had legal authority in both the northern zone of France, which was occupied by the German Wehrmacht, and the unoccupied southern "free zone", where the regime's administrative center of Vichy was located. The southern zone remained under Vichy control until the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942.

PÐ"©tain and the Vichy regime willfully collaborated with Nazi Germany to a high degree. The French police organized raids to capture Jews and others considered "undesirables" by the Germans in both the northern and southern zones.

The legitimacy of Vichy France and PÐ"©tain's leadership was challenged by General Charles de Gaulle, who claimed to instead incarnate the legitimacy and continuity of France. Following the Allies' invasion of France in Operation Overlord, de Gaulle proclaimed the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) in June, 1944. After the Liberation of Paris in August, the GPRF installed itself in Paris on August 31. The GPRF was recognized as the legitimate government of France by the Allies on October 23, 1944.

With the liberation of France in August and September, the Vichy officials and supporters moved to Sigmaringen, a French enclave in Germany and there established a government in exile, headed by PÐ"©tain, until April 1945.

Establishment of the Vichy government

On July 1, 1940, the Parliament and the government gathered themselves in Vichy, a city in the center of France, which was used as a provisional capital. Laval and RaphaÐ"«l Alibert started convincing the representatives of the French people, both Senators and Assemblymen, to vote full powers to PÐ"©tain. They used every means available: promising some ministerial posts, threatening and intimidating others. The charismatic figures who could have opposed themselves to Laval, Georges Mandel, Edouard Daladier, etc., were on board the ship Massilia, headed for North Africa. On July 10, 1940, the Parliament, composed of the Senate and the National Assembly, voted by 569 votes against 80 (known as the Vichy 80, including 62 Radicals and Socialists), and 30 voluntary abstentions, to grant full and extraordinary powers to Marshal PÐ"©tain. By the same vote, they also granted him the power to write a new Constitution.

The legality of this vote has been contested by the majority of French historians and by all French governments after the war. Three main arguments are put forward:

non-respect of the legal procedure

the impossibility for the Parliament to delegate its constitutional powers without controlling its use a posteriori

the 1884 constitutional amendment making it impossible to put into question the "republican form" of the regime

Partisans of Vichy claim, on the contrary, that the revision was voted by the two Chambers (the Senate and the National Assembly), in conformity with the law. Deputies and senators who voted to grant full powers to PÐ"©tain on this day were condemned on an individual basis after the Liberation.

The argument concerning the non-respect of the procedure is grounded on the absence and on the non-voluntary abstentions of 176 representatives of the people (the 27 on board the Massilia, and additional 92 deputies and 57 senators some of whom were in Vichy, but not present for the vote). In total, the Parliament was composed of 846 members, 544 deputies and 302 senators. One senator and 26 deputies were on the Massilia. One senator did not vote. 8 senators and 12 MPs voluntarily abstained. 57 senators and 92 MPs abstained involuntarily. Thus, out of a total of 544 deputies, only 414 voted; and out of a total of 302 senators, only 235 voted. 357 deputies voted in favor of PÐ"©tain, and 57 refused to grant him full powers. 212 senators also voted for PÐ"©tain, while 23 voted against. The dubious conditions of this vote thus explain why a majority of French historians refuse to consider Vichy as a complete continuity of the French state, notwithstanding the fact that although PÐ"©tain could claim for himself legality (and a dubious legality), de Gaulle, as the Gaullist myth would later make clear, incarnated the real legitimacy. The debate is thus not only of legitimacy versus legality (indeed, by this fact alone, Charles de Gaulle's claim to hold legitimacy ignores the interior Resistance). But it rather concerns the illegal circumstances of this vote.[1]

The text voted by the Congress

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