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ELECTION

Explained: What was France’s Fourth Republic and why it’s in the news again

With projections for a deadlocked parliament after the second round of voting and widespread predictions of political chaos, many French commentators are starting to make comparisons with France's Fourth Republic - for those of us who didn't grow up in France, here's what that means.

Published: 2 July 2024 12:06 CEST
Explained: What was France's Fourth Republic and why it's in the news again
The Assemblée National (Palais Bourbon), the lower house of the French Parliament, illuminated at dusk. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Le spectre de la IVe République plane-t-il sur Macron ? – Is the spectre of the Fourth Republic hanging over Macron?

If you’re following French press coverage of the chaotic political situation in France right now, you might be coming across more and more sentences like this.

But while the Fourth Republic is a standard part of the French history syllabus, it doesn’t make it into many lesson plans outside France.

Here’s a look at what the Fourth Republic was, and why it might be relevant to the modern political crisis.

When 

The 4th republic ran from 1946 to 1958. French history is divided into the ancien regième (pre French Revolution) and the post-Revolution period which is divided into a series of republics, interspersed with a few non-republic periods such as when Napoleon got carried away and declared himself emperor.

You can find a fuller history here, but in brief the republics go; 

  • 1792-1804 – first republic. Runs from the abolition of the monarchy during the French Revolution until Napoleon declared himself emperor
  • 1848-1852 – second republic. Ended when Napoleon’s nephew Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) overthrew the government and declared a second French empire with himself at the head
  • 1870-1940 – third republic. Ended with the Nazi invasion of France in 1940 when the republic was suspended and the period of the occupation and Vichy government began.
  • 1946-1958 – fourth republic. This one ended with a threatened military coup over Algerian independence, a panicked government brought WWII resistance leader Charles de Gaulle back into government and passed a new constitution.
  • 1958-present day – fifth republic. 

Each republic has its own constitution with significant differences in aspects such as how the political system works and the powers of the president versus the government.

What was going on?

The Fourth Republic covered a turbulent period in French politics – in 1946 the country was emerging from one of the most traumatic periods in its history; the Nazi occupation of World War II.

Nearly bankrupt, the country was also dealing with the national shame of the occupation and the collapse of the democratic government in 1940 (replaced by the un-elected collaborationist Vichy regime). 

The Fourth Republic ended in turmoil (as have all French republics so far, in fact) during the exceptionally brutal war of independence in Algeria.

Sensing that the government in Paris was paving the way for Algeria to be given independence from France, French soldiers in Algeria launched a military coup in opposition to this – the military also seized power in Corsica.

The national government panicked, fearing that insurrection could spread to France itself and other colonies.

Charles de Gaulle – who made his name as a figurehead of the French resistance during WWII and as the country’s first post-war leader – was called out of retirement to unite the country, restore order and avoid what some feared would become a civil war.

But what about the politics?

The Fourth Republic wasn’t just a turbulent period in history – it was also an extremely unstable period for governments.

Over its 12-year duration, there were a total of 24 governments. 

Governments rose and fell with dizzying regularity – a man named Pierre Pflimlin was prime minister for a grand total of 18 days in 1958, and he wasn’t even the shortest-serving PM of the fourth republic.

Parliament was also frequently deadlocked, coalitions and alliances were made and broken rapidly and prime ministers came and went as through a revolving door – the shortest serving PM was Robert Schuman who served just nine days, but that was his second shot at the job.

Henri Queuille was prime minister three times, in 1948, 1950 and 1951 and his first period in the job was the longest premiership of the Fourth Republic, lasting a whopping one year and 47 days.

It was a reaction to this political chaos that strongly influenced the constitution of the Fifth Republic – set up with Charles de Gaulle at the head in 1958.

De Gaulle insisted that the president was given widespread powers, at the expense of parliament, in order to curb what he saw at the excess of parliamentary powers that contributed to the turmoil of the Fourth Republic.

It’s why the French president to this day has constitutional powers to over-rule parliament, for example through the tool known as Article 49.3 which allows a president to force through legislation even if parliament opposes it.

The Fifth Republic also set up the president as the dominant political power in France – previously that had been the prime minister, with the president having more of a ceremonial role.

Its sheer instability means that these days the Fourth Republic is little lamented – those who call for a complete change of the system of government and the creation of a Sixth Republic tend to skip over the fourth altogether and use as a model the Third Republic.

But this is ancient history, why are we talking about it now?

The Fourth Republic is back in the news because it looks like France may be facing a new period of chaos in parliament.

The snap parliamentary elections called by president Emmanuel Macron were intended to restore a sense of consensus, but look like they are backfiring and instead creating a more turbulent situation.

Current polls suggest that the far-right Rassemblement National will be the biggest party, but it’s not certain whether they will win enough seats in parliament to gain an absolute majority.

If the party wins a majority the most likely outcome is that Macron will be forced to appoint far-right leader Jordan Bardella as prime minister and rule jointly with him in a very uneasy cohabitation.

If the far-right become the biggest party but don’t get a majority the most likely result is chaos – with attempts to build fragile alliances or coalitions between parties.

The “spectre of the Fourth Republic” is therefore the spectre of chaos and deadlock in parliament and maybe even a PM who will break Robert Schuman’s unenviable record of just nine days in office.

OPINION: The best that France can hope for now is 12 months of chaos

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JOHN LICHFIELD

OPINION: After the elections, the battle for the soul of France begins

Stripped of the noise and confusion of the campaign, Sunday's second round of voting will in many places be a straight choice between a candidate of the Far Right and a candidate of the anti-Far Right 'republican front' - writes John Lichfield. It will show whether French voters do truly want a Le Pen government - and will kick-start a long and chaotic battle over the future of France.

Published: 5 July 2024 11:50 CEST
OPINION: After the elections, the battle for the soul of France begins

President Emmanuel Macron has finally got his way.

For months he has been attempting to engineer a referendum on the Far Right. French voters insisted on making the European elections and the first round of parliamentary elections a referendum on him.

In Round Two on Sunday, Macron’s question can no longer  be avoided. In more than 300 of the 501 constituencies still in play, there will be a straight fight between the Rassemblement National and a candidate of the so-called “Republican Front”, the makeshift anti-Far Right alliance between former sworn enemies of Left and Centre.

Listen to John and the team from The Local discussing the election latest on the Talking France podcast – download here or listen on the link below

Over 200 of these constituencies were potential three-way battles after Round One. Scores of third-placed candidates of the Left alliance and the Macron centrist alliance have now withdrawn, willingly or under duress, to allow their better-placed former rivals a clear run against the populist-nationalist Right.

Stripped of all the noise and confusion of the campaign, Sunday’s vote is therefore a simple affair. Does France want to be governed by the anti-European, pro-Russian, still fundamentally racist Rassemblement National? 

Ask the experts: How far right is Rassemblement National?

Does it want to be led by a 28-year-old Prime Minister, Jordan Bardella, who is an impressive purveyor of sound-bites and a darling of Tik-Tok but has never run anything but his mouth?

An avalanche of polls and seat projections in the last two days suggests that the answer will be “no”.

All polls still say that the Far Right and their centre-right quisling allies will form the largest single bloc in the new National Assembly on Sunday. All now agree  that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will fall far short of the 289 seats needed for an overall majority and well shy of the 260 or so seats which might, with difficulty, form the basis of a governing coalition.

On Monday, when I forecast that the RN would NOT form the next French government, I defied the ambient mood of much of the national and the foreign media. The conventional wisdom has shifted in my direction.

That makes me uneasy. Hundreds of candidates have stood aside. The pollsters have polled. But the voters have yet to vote.

Many of the key battleground constituencies will be very close on Sunday night. Polls suggest that as many as half the first round voters of the Left and Centre are unwilling to vote tactically for their former enemies of Centre and Left.

The transfer of less than half of the third-placed votes should  be enough to defeat the Far Right in many constituencies. It will be insufficient or produce a coin’s toss result in others.

One of the most pivotal Republican Front v Far Right constituencies is my own in south western Calvados. In Round One, the sitting Macronist deputy, the former Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, was pushed into second place by a relatively unknown candidate of the Rassemblement National, Nicolas Calbrix.

The young man who came third, Noé Gauchard, candidate for the hard-left La France Insoumise, withdrew immediately without waiting for national pacts or fronts or instructions.

“It’s hard from me to withdraw for Elisabeth Borne, the woman who manipulated through the pension reform,” he said.

“But that does not compare with fascism.”

In Round One, the RN candidate took 36.26 percent of the vote, Borne 28.93 percent and Guichard 23.16 percent. Most of the rest went to other Far Right candidates (3 percent) and a centre-right candidate (7 percent) Borne therefore needs around 40 percent of the Left vote to win in Round Two.

She should win. It will be very close.

I spoke to one of the few people who live in the constituency who is not white.

I will call him Ahmed. “If I was not a Muslim I would probably vote for Bardella,” he said. “People are very angry. There are some I know who can only afford to eat one meal a day. The Far Right message – no one cares about you but us – may be false but it strikes home.

“I voted for the Left in Round One and I will vote for Borne, with no pleasure, in Round Two but only because I am  a French-born Muslim and I know what damage Le Pen and Bardella can do to my country. Many other people here don’t care about all that.”

The Rassemblement National mocks the Republican Front as the last-stand of the “elite” – an alliance “against nature” which stretches from the anti-capitalist, Mélenchon Left to the Globalist Macronist Centre. Some voters of the Left, and not just the Left, secretly agree with them.

Others, like Noé Guichard and Ahmed, will see Sunday’s vote as a moral stand against a destructive, mendacious and incompetent Far Right.

Marine Le Pen also argues that the Republican Front is a denial of democracy. Her party topped the poll last Sunday with an unprecedented 33.3 percent of the vote. She and Bardella therefore have right to govern, she says.

But France is not Britain. In a first-past-the post, one round system, we would be facing the first far right government in France since 1944. Keir Starmer won a landslide for Labour on Thursday night with only slightly more of the popular vote (about 35 percent) than the RN won last weekend.

The French two-round system may be laborious and arcane but it does give voters a chance to correct blunders and avoid calamities. The political establishment may have “conspired” to create the Republican Front but no one can force voters to support it on Sunday night.

Despite my misgivings, I believe they will. That will not be a “denial” of democracy. It will be the healthy reaction of the two-thirds or so of the French electorate which does NOT want government by mendacious, incompetent and frequently racist charlatans.

France will plunge instead into at least 12 months and possibly three years of confusion and disarray before the next Presidential election. Whatever government can be concocted from Sunday’s results will struggle to respond to the genuine distress of part of the electorate.

In 12 months or three years’ time, Le Pen and Bardella will blame once again a conspiracy of the establishment – not their rejection by a majority of voters – for their failure to bring their destructive and incoherent ideas into government.

I believe that they will be defeated on Sunday but that will be just the beginning of a long and crippling battle over the future, and the soul, of France.  

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