The 4.1 Republic
Prime Ministers of France
1951-1952:
René Pleven (UDSR)
1951 (Troisième Force majority): Guy Mollet (SFIO), Maurice Thorez (PCF), Jacques Soustelle (RPF), Georges Bidault (MRP), Henri Queuille (PRS), Independent Republicans, Roger Duchet (CNIP), René Pleven (UDSR), Félix Houphouët-Boigny (RDA)
1952:
Edgar Faure (Radical)
1952-1953:
Antoine Pinay (Independent Republican)
1953-1954: René Mayer (Radical)
1954: Edgar Faure (Radical)
1954-1955: Paul Reynaud (CNIP)
1955:
René Pleven (UDSR)
1955-1956:
Guy Mollet (SFIO)
1956 (no majority): Guy Mollet (SFIO), Maurice Thorez (PCF), Pierre Henri-Teitgen (MRP), Roger Duchet (CNIP), Pierre Mendès France (PRS), Pierre Poujade (UFF), Jacques Chaban-Delmas (RS), François Mitterrand (UDSR-RDA), Edgar Faure (RGR)
1956-1957:
Pierre Mendès France (Radical)
1957:
Robert Lecourt (MRP)
1957-1958:
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury (Radical)
1958-1960:
Pierre Pflimlin (MRP)
1960-1961:
François Mitterrand (UDSR)
1961-1963:
Christian Pineau (SFIO)
1961 (Republican Front majority): Christian Pineau (SFIO), Camille Laurens (CNIP), Maurice Thorez (PCF), Jean Lecanuet (MRP), Maurice Faure (PRS), Georges Bidault (CR), François Mitterrand (UDSR-RDA), Pierre Poujade (UFF), Edmond Michelet (RS)
1963-1964:
François Mitterrand (UDSR)
1964-1965:
Jean Lecanuet (MRP)
1965-1966:
Félix Gaillard (PRS)
1966-1968:
Antoine Pinay (CNIP)
1966 (Centre-right majority): Gaston Defferre (SFIO), Raymond Mondon (CNIP), Waldeck Rochet (PCF), Pierre Mendès France (PRS), Jean Lecanuet (MRP), Léon Martinaud-Déplat (CR), Edmond Michelet (RS), François Mitterrand (UDSR)
1968-
0000:
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (CNIP)
Presidents of France
1946-1953:
Vincent Auriol (SFIO)
1954-1962:
Henri Queuille (Radical)
1962-1969:
Paul Coste-Floret (MRP)
1969-
0000:
Pierre Schneiter (MRP)
Prime Ministers of Saarland
1947-1960:
Johannes Hoffmann (CVP)
1947 (majority) def. Richard Kirn (SPS), Heinrich Schneider (DPS), Fritz Nickolay (KP)
1952 (majority) def. Richard Kirn (SPS), Fritz Bäsel (KP)
1955 (CVP-SPS coalition) def. Humbert Ney (CDU-Saar), Heinrich Schneider (DPS), Richard Kirn (SPS), Kurt Conrad (DSP), Fritz Nickolay (KP)
1956 (CVP-SPS coalition) def. Richard Kirn (SPS), Heinrich Schneider (DPS), Franz-Josef Röder (CDU-Saar), Fritz Nickolay (KP), Humbert Ney (CNG)
1960-1968:
Erwin Müller (CVP)
1961 (CVP-CDU coalition) def. Richard Kirn (SPS), Heinrich Schneider (DPS), Franz-Josef Röder (CDU-Saar), Fritz Nickolay (KP), Humbert Ney (CNG)
1966 (majority) def. Richard Kirn (SPS), Heinrich Schneider (DPS), Fritz Nickolay (KP), Humbert Ney (CNG)
1968-
0000:
Franz Schneider (CVP)
European Commissioners for Saarland [0]
1956-1966:
Louis Beel
1966-
0000:
Pierre Wigny
Presidents of the European Executive Council
1957-1962:
Paul-Henri Teitgen (MRP-EDU)
1957 (EDU-ESF-FLDP grand coalition) def. Hendrik Fayat (ESF), René Pleven (FLDP), nationalists, communists
1962-
0000:
François de Menthon (MRP-EDU)
1962 (EDU-ESF coalition) def. Paul-Henri Spaak (ESF), Pieter Oud (FLDP), Giorgio Amendola (FECP), nationalists
1967 (EDU-FLDP coalition) def. Willy Brandt (ESF), Gaetano Martino (FLDP), Giorgio Amendola (FECP), nationalists
The 1948 local elections had been the breakthrough of the Gaullist political party and perhaps the harbinger of De Gaulle's return to power building on discontent with communism, instability and inflation. Instead, by the time the 1951 elections, the General would see his hopes dashed. The electorate did support him, but less than he had expected and definitely less than in the 1948 local election. A combination of the new electoral law and momentum had crushed his hopes. The RPF would remain one of the largest parties in parliament[1], but the resistance of the Third Force parties - despite their differences - isolated them from power until 1953. First, the Marie-Barangé law and then, the EDC project had divided the parliamentary majority, almost inevitably.
What De Gaulle did not - could not - expect was that one politician from the Fourth Republic would prove popular: Antoine Pinay. Pinay, with his weekly radio shows, his pragmatic conservatism and average Frenchman aspect - including a thick Auvergnat accent - had become one of the very few popular politicians of the 1950s. The Mendès France of the right. During his premiership, Pinay and his foreign minister, Robert Schuman ratified the Common Army project in Parliament - amidst great acrimony, normalised relations with Adenauer by managing to sign a pre-agreement on the status of the Saar territory and pursued the Indochina War to a stalemate thanks to the recruitment of a Vietnamese Army to support the French troops [2]. Eventually, Pinay would resign after the MRP announced it would not approve his budget for 1954 [3].
In December 1953, the first televised presidential election in France's history took place. After six rounds of voting, the venerable Radical politician Henri Queuille was elected for his
septennat.[4]
The '
sortie honorable' from Indochina was achieved in 1954 under the premiership of Edgar Faure. Faure would also have to face the start of hostilities in Algeria, that came to dominate French politics for nearly a decade, plunging the economy into a balance of payments and inflationary crisis along the way. Simultaneously, the tax increases and the economic modernisation plans caused uproar amongst the lower-middle classes of France's south-east, giving birth to the Poujadiste movement, that would turn into a far-right party once in parliament.
The 1956 election, held shortly after the Hungarian invasion was a godsend to the socialist party, which recovered working-class voters from the Communists [5], making it the largest party in parliament for the first time since 1936. Guy Mollet would manage to craft a centre-left government with the support of Mendès France's Radicals [6] and the MRP (among others). The various governments of this parliamentary arithmetic would prove very successful in many aspects, from social reform policies, particularly housing and the ratification of the Political Community treaty to imposing a liberal colonial policy by granting independence to Morocco and Tunisia, the
loi cadre for Subsaharan Africa and the new Statute of Algeria and most importantly, constitutional reforms that reinforced the executive. In 1961, the same centre-left coalition won the election, ultimately granting Algeria independence within the French Community in 1964. The support of the MRP as a whole and elements of the modérés and the CNIP for the liberal colonial policy led to the foundation of
Centre Républicain, a right-wing, pro-
Algérie française party, first led by Georges Bidault.
The arrest of Bidault, who had become heavily involved in far-right terrorist activities in Algeria and in France against the government and other liberal figures was shocking to France, as Bidault had been a first-minute
résistant. He was replaced by Martinaud-Déplat, who while arguing for a more conservative colonial policy and for a more strident anti-communist policy, was a more politically acceptable choice. The CD would become the most right-wing element in the governments of Antoine Pinay and Valéry Giscard d'Estaign after 1966.
[0] The European Commissioner for Saarland is appointed by and responsible to the Council of Ministers of the European Community (not the same as the Executive Council). The Commissioner can neither be German nor French nor a Saarlander, but he is subject to approval from the French and German governments, who can veto any nominee they do not approve of.
[1] A worse result than OTL, which means that the
loi d'apparentements kicks in in more constituencies.
[2] Something along these lines was proposed OTL but never quite materialised under general Navarre.
[3] Again, similar to OTL, the MRP was very uncomfortable with supporting a right-wing government without SFIO involvement. Once the EDC Treaty is passed TTL, they no longer have a reason to swallow their moral concerns.
[4] OTL, it took 13 rounds and the elected was René Coty, who managed to get elected because he had been sick during the EDC debates of May 1952, and as a result, no one knew whether he was a
cédiste or an
anticédiste, hence being acceptable to both sides. Televising that awful performance is widely accredited with hurting the legitimacy of the 4th Republic.
[5] No Suez Canal crisis TTL.
[6] Like OTL, PMF managed to take over the party after Edouard Herriot's death, expelling right-wing-leaning Radicals like Edgar Faure, René Mayer or Léon Martinaud-Déplat.