The Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), headed by General de Gaulle, succeeded the French National Liberation Committee (CFLN) on June 3, 1944. For two years, the GPRF governed metropolitan France and its colonial empire until the Fourth Republic came into effect on October 27, 1946.
On June 2, 1944, in Algiers, the French Committee for National Liberation (CFLN)—which had emerged from the Resistance both within and outside France—adopted the name Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). After the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, the GPRF, chaired by General de Gaulle, left Algiers for the capital, settled there on the 31st, and took over the governance of France. The GPRF was composed of Communists, Socialists, Radicals, and members of the MRP (Popular Republican Movement).
It annulled the constitutional decisions of the Vichy regime (ordinance of August 9, 1944) and was recognized by the major powers on October 23, 1944. Its first act was to oppose the establishment of an interim U.S. military administration. To restore republican authority, the GPRF sent a Commissioner of the Republic to each major liberated region, who sometimes clashed with local Resistance committees.
Resistance organizations have armed units that could be won over to the communists. To counter this “danger,” the GPRF is working to incorporate these units into the regular army.
Women’s right to vote was confirmed by the ordinance of October 5, 1944, following a proposal by the Communists. The GPRF also established social security and family allowances in accordance with the CNR’s program.
The GPRF continued the war and organized a purge to prevent popular excesses (summary executions and public shaving of women suspected of having affairs with the enemy). The “legal” purge, ” purges, carried out by magistrates who were often Pétainists, proved lenient toward former Nazi collaborators such as, among others, René Bousquet, chief of the Vichy police and organizer of the largest roundups of Jews—including the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup— Xavier Vallat, Commissioner General for Jewish Affairs, who was jointly responsible for the removal of Jews from public life, their registration, and the liquidation of their property—and who had been convicted by the High Court of Justice—was granted early release. Maurice Lagrange, one of the drafters of the anti-Semitic laws, remained a member of the Council of State.
On October 21, 1945, a referendum marked the end of the Third Republic.
Reference:
Cartier, Emmanuel, 2005, The Constitutional Transition in France (1940–1945): The Revolutionary Reconstruction of a “Republican” Legal Order, Paris, “Bibliothèque constitutionnelle et de science politique” series (No. 126).
