Marshal Pétain in a broadcast from Vichy last night explained in outline what kind of a Constitution he has in mind for France. For some of his ideas he goes back to the Bourbons, and he takes the seat of government back to the Palace of Versailles. It was also announced on the French wireless that Marshal Pétain had signed a number of decrees which are the first steps in setting up the new Constitution.

Marshal Pétain, 1940. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

The new State will be totalitarian, but administration will be decentralised. At its head will be Marshal Pétain – by one of the decrees he signed he takes over the powers of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. Under him will be twelve Ministers and twelve Under Secretaries of State, who will be responsible to the Marshal and with him will exercise full power of government.

New Assemblies to replace the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will be set up. In the meantime the Senate and the Chamber will remain in existence, but they will meet only when they are summoned by the Chief of State – that is, Marshal Pétain. Until the Assemblies are created the Marshal has full legislative powers and also after their formation if there is any serious foreign or domestic crisis.

Versailles - By Permission

It is intended that the seat of the Government shall be Versailles. “In order to settle urgent questions more easily,” said the Marshal in his broadcast, “the Government intends to transfer its seat to occupied France. We have therefore asked the German Government to liberate Versailles and the quarter of Paris in which the Ministries are situated.”

Marshal Pétain and the second Vichy government. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

The administrative unit for the country will be the thirty-odd provinces that existed before the First Republic. In each a governor and staff will be appointed. These to a large extent will take the place of the prefects of the present ninety departments. [The France of the First Republic found the large provinces too unwieldy and split the country into departments or “counties.” It was Napoleon who devised the system of prefects, appointed by Paris, to represent the Government in each of these departments and thus enable the capital to exercise a controlling hand over all local administration.]

Marshal Pétain declared that the machinery of administration would be simplified. “ The activity of civil servants will no longer be obstructed by regulations, and in this way officials will be able to act more rapidly,” he said.

Against Internationalism

In his broadcast Marshal Pétain gave his general reasons for the changes. He attacked international capitalism and international Socialism, which, he said, had gone hand in hand in order to exploit France. They were a thing of the past. “It is now necessary to fight against all internationalism. The basis of our new State,” he went on, “must be work, family, and Fatherland. The nation’s communications must be restored: each must return to his hearth and to his job.

In these most recent days new trials have been inflicted on France. England, after a long alliance, took the opportunity to attack partially disarmed and immobilised ships in our ports. Nothing justified that aggression. If England thought we would give our fleet to Germany she was wrong. The fleet received the order to defend itself, and it did so valiantly, in spite of the inequality of the battle. France stands alone, attacked today by England, for whom she consented to numerous severe sacrifices.”

Finally, Marshal Pétain appealed to the French nation for support of the new French Constitution, which the National Assembly had given the Government powers to draft.