On this day 64 years ago, Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic of France. Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born in Lille in 1890. He currently has the reputation of being one of France’s most influential statesmen.
For de Gaulle, however, this political career was a long road: Professionally, he came from the military. In 1910, he joined the French army, in which he experienced a rapid rise. Already in the Second World War against Germany, he was commander of France’s 4th Armored Division. After successes in national defense, de Gaulle was promoted to general on 01 June 1940 and subsequently appointed to the French cabinet as undersecretary of state for national defense. When the majority of the government showed a willingness to accept an armistice with Germany, de Gaulle protested against that plan and ultimately departed for London. From there he called on the French people to fight against the occupiers and organized the resistance. As a result, the Resistance Committee “France libre” appointed him head of the “Free French Forces.”
When the liberation of France was announced in 1943, de Gaulle founded the “French Committee for National Liberation” (CFLN), at the head of which he placed himself. Transforming this committee into a provisional government, he subsequently became vo-temporarily president of postwar France.
With the Algerian War in 1958 and the threat of Algerian independence, a political crisis erupted in France. As a result, a military coup d’état ensued, forcing the installation of de Gaulle as prime minister with far-reaching emergency powers. Along the way, Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of France on June 1, 1958, and was at the beginning of his formative political career.
As early as September, he presented the French people with a new constitution that transformed the political system into a presidential system. He thus created the Fifth Republic, which exists today, and was elected president in December 1958. Originally, de Gaulle did not envisage a direct election of the president by the people. However, after he considered the president’s position of power to be too low, he enforced the now familiar direct election of the president by referendum in 1962.
This has had two exciting effects to this day: On the one hand, the French people do not confirm their president in office, and on the other hand, the presidential direct election causes a devaluation of the parliamentary election. We want to find out together with you how Emmanuel Marcon nevertheless succeeded in being re-elected president on 24 April 2022 and what effects this may have on the parliamentary elections on 19 June 2022. For this purpose we cordially invite you on 15.06.2022 at 18:30 in the lecture hall H06 to discuss these and other questions with Prof. Dr. Hans Stark from Paris.
(mda)