The French Presidential Election of 1938

Written by Jacob Sullivan Edited by Zach Batson

After the public assassination of Léon Blum during his speech advocating for unity, the politics of France were in disarray. Political radicals of the Liberation movement, flamed by the accusations levied by Les Lorrains newspaper, began organizing massive protests in Paris, demanding the government retaliate against The Holy Roman Empire's marked aggression. Driven by these public displays and the death of such a beloved public figure, increasing numbers of liberals and leftists came under the fold of the Liberation Party. This increased participation in the protests led to several violent clashes with police, and multiple death threats were sent to public officials. In particular, French President Albert Lebrun received several letters calling for him to be dragged to the gallows, along with protesters constructing a guillotine across the street from his home in Paris. These protests and the election that followed set the stage for a radical shift in French politics that would be the catalyst for the New Revolutionary movement and subsequent establishment of The New French Republic in August.

The Man Who Would Replace Blum

The constant pressure of tumultuous protests and death threats put President Lebrun in a difficult situation. It was the duty of the President to appoint an acting Prime Minister if the current one was deceased or stepped down. As such, after Blum's death, President Lebrun was forced to consider a candidate to replace him. Lebrun himself was a member of the conservative Bonapartian Party, though he thought of himself as more of a moderate, which was reflected in his decision-making for most of his tenure. Lebrun often worked closely with Blum to find ways to make policy more appealing across party lines, and before the assassination he was viewed favorably in the press as a man of principle, willing to cooperate with the other side for the betterment of the nation. Although he was well-liked and had many friends among the left, Lebrun knew that appointing a more moderate Liberal would weaken his legitimacy in the next election cycle among his conservative peers. Furthermore, both he and his constituents feared that further appeasement of the radicals might simply hand the Falcem Populi the rope to their execution.

As a result, Lebrun ignored his moderate leanings in his decision to appoint former field marshal Philippe Pétain as the new Prime Minister; a decision that not only led to his inevitable resignation in late April, but also served to escalate extremism in the protests that shook France. According to Lebrun’s statement to the press, his decision to appoint Pétain came from his desire to restore law and order to the streets of Paris. In his acceptance speech, Pétain, a long-time Bonapartist, spoke of the values of public order which he sought through any means necessary. The threatening tone of his speech combined with his threats to get the Garde Nationale involved in quelling the protests did little to alleviate the fear and anger many of France’s citizens were feeling after the loss of Blum. Many viewed this sudden conservative shift as conspiratorial, viewing the election as a validation of the "L'Aiglon" theory, and Lebrun as responsible for Blum’s death.

Philippe Pétain was a particularly egregious choice in the eyes of most leftists in France. He had been a long-time political rival of Blum, and for that reason, many moderates and liberals believed his appointment was disrespectful to the late statesman’s legacy. On the other hand, the far-left Liberation Party saw Pétain as a threat to their movement, and an attempt by the Bonapartians to reinstate the monarchy. Conservatives rejoiced at Pétain’s election, as it would serve to consolidate their power over the legislative branch. Not understanding the dire political consequences of the controversial appointment, they did little to discredit the accusations being levied against the President. It was a well-known fact that Pétain had close personal ties to Napoleon V, and was an established monarchist. Adding to the impending disaster, Pétain quickly showed himself to be an incompetant politician. Within a few short days of his appointment he began attempts to roll back many of the popular reforms enacted by Blum, which in the eyes of many further cemented the former Prime Minister as a martyr. Additionally, Pétain's strong advocacy for military intervention in the protests and praise of the Gendarmerie Nationale’s harsh treatment of protestors did little to quell the anger. If anything, this strategy continued to escalate the violence of the protests.

Although his tenure was short-lived, Pétain, unlike many of his conservative constituents, did actually fear a potential military confrontation with the HRE. He dispatched the team responsible for the Germinal Military Readiness Report on April 18th to assess the empire's colonial core in the event of the need for mass conscription. Although this move at the time was rather innocuous, the report ironically provided valuable information for the revolutionary government when the French Empire fell. Aside from this report, however, the legacy of Pétain as the Prime Minister is marred by his public tantrums, ineffectual leadership, and extremist beliefs. In his mere two weeks serving as Prime Minister, the shortest of any previous holder of the position, Pétain created a lasting legacy of incompetence and buffoonery matched by very few in France’s political history. In the month leading up to the election, a common joke in Paris claimed that had Pétain had his way, he would have dined exclusively on Imperial Jackboots.

On April 20th, Pétain’s tenure as Prime Minister came to a sudden end with his resignation and subsequent flight from the country to British-aligned Spain. His departure created much scandal in the press, with many speculating about his potential ties to the crown. In truth his escape was more out of necessity than conspiracy. Pétain’s gross unpopularity made him many enemies in his short time as Prime Minister, to such an extent that during a speech given to the Garde Nationale he was assaulted by a young private by the name of Pierre Georges. Georges was arrested promptly, and sentenced to death in a very public, very expendiant trial. His sentence would later be overturned shortly after the revolution, and he was awarded a Revolutionary Cross for his assault on the former Prime Minister. Aside from this humiliation, Pétain's last week was subject to several death threats and a handful of very public assassination attempts. He fled the country in fear of what he described as, “the bloodthirsty zealots who have stolen the country from its rightful rulers.” Embarrassed by the situation, and with nearly no political credibility left, President Lebrun resigned the same day, both out of shame and fear. Despite the Guillotine sitting in view of his front door, Lebrun refused to flee the country, a decision that he would sorely regret in the coming month.

The Emergency Election

The resignation of both the President and the Prime Minister triggered an emergency session in parliament, as the country could not function without someone filling these roles. A special election was called for the President, which was to be decided in early June. There was little time for a full election cycle, and each party was forced to choose a candidate, campaign, and win an election in as little as three weeks. The urgency of the election was due to constitutional law, but was not helped by gridlock in parliament, the intensity of the Paris protests, and the myriad of death threats received by moderates and Bonapartians.

The candidate selection took place on May 13th, with the Bonapartist Party nominating Raphaël Alibert, a staunch royalist and close friend of Pétain. This pick was deeply unpopular, but the Conservative Party was already the minority seat in Parliament and had little hope of winning after the disaster of Pétain and Lebrun’s handling of Blum’s death. The Liberal Party selected Pierre Laval as their candidate. Laval was a former socialist but joined with the Liberals later in life. He was widely known to have very right-wing beliefs despite his association with the leftist party. Many viewed him as a moderate at best, and a Bonapartist sympathizer at worst. In the eyes of the Liberal elites who nominated him, Laval was a sure choice, despite his right-wing tendencies as the Bonapartists were in shambles. The Liberals preferred a more moderate candidate, as they wished to elect a law and order-based President with more political experience, who unlike Pétain could competently navigate the political landscape to quell the fanatical protests in the streets. This decision came out of both fear and entitlement, and in hindsight proved to be the nail in the coffin for both parties.

With both the Bonapartist and Liberal parties putting forth rather safe, albeit lackluster candidates, most politicians in France were content with either primary party's choice and felt relieved and hopeful that the political turmoil would soon be over. Unfortunately for them, a third candidate entered the race as well, with the dark horse nomination of Auguste Charbonnier representing the Liberation Party. In the past, the Liberation Party candidate was often viewed as a joke candidate who only ever won a fraction of the vote from the most radical of socialists in the French Republic. Charbonnier, by all accounts, was a nobody in the political world. He was however well known amongst the French Communist Party and was a card-carrying member of the Falcem Populi. His nomination was the result of an article he had recently written for Les Lorrains about Lebrun’s involvement in the assassination of Leon Blum.

The Liberation Party's nomination proved to be a fruitful strategy, as his status as a political outsider and his bombastic and aggressive personality made him a favorite to people across the political spectrum who were fed up with what they viewed as the decadent political elite. During his campaign, Charbonnier quickly became a front-runner in the race and became famous for his constant boasting, and his frequent insults of his political opponents. Though he never explicitly advocated violence in his campaign speeches, he frequently implied it. His weeks-long campaign consisted of constant public scandals that French newspapers struggled to keep up with, while Les Lorrains continued to spin his misconduct as a mark of his maverick personality and defiant stance against the status quo. The election itself was a landslide, with the other candidates barely picking up thirty percent of the vote between the two of them. The French people demanded change, and Charbonnier was set to give it to them.

A New Day In France

The violent riots and protests that took place in Paris dramatically shifted to celebration on election day, with parades and speeches going late into the night. In his victory speech, Charbonnier notably refused to denounce the violence of the protests over the last few months and the death threats sent to his political opponents, instead opting to celebrate the protesters as true patriots and encourage them to keep fighting their oppressors until all of France could be free. That night after the celebrations, two Bonapartist politicians were pulled from their homes in the middle of the night, and executed by Guillotine in a public square. There were numerous witness accounts published in local papers, however no suspect was ever charged.

Charbonnier’s election was extremely controversial in Parliament, not only in its violent beginning, but in what it meant for the future of the French legislative body. Politicians on both sides were shell-shocked by the historic election, and many walked out in protest of the results and the handling of the deaths of their colleagues. Other more moderate Liberals saw the storm brewing, and quickly shifted their rhetoric to fall in line with the most radical members of the Liberation Party.Many other politicians quietly disappeared from the public eye, either having fled from their nation, or their lives. By the end of June, politics in France were completely transformed. On the day of the election, the Liberation Party controlled 22% of the French Republic’s parliament. By June 30th, that number had increased to 53%, with the newly formed “Opposition Party” holding the remaining seats. This new party consisted of Liberals and Bonapartists who refused to turncoat to the Liberation Party, and who formed a coalition to oppose the threat the President and his supporters posed to the nation. Violence and death threats against politicians continued up until the revolution, but the landslide election of Charbonnier in June completely changed the face of French politics and allowed the new President and his party to use the full apparatus of the state to begin radicalizing the rest of the populace.