Provisional Consultative Assembly

It is on November 3rd 1943, which the “ provisional Consultative Assembly ”, joined together pursuant to the ordinance of the French Comité of the national Release of September 17th, 1943, held its first meeting in Algiers, with the palate of the financial Delegations.

The raison d'être of the Consultative Assembly

In de Gaulle and North Africa, where the majority of the population had been won over to the Pétain marshal, and where the administration, the army, the censure the press were always truffées of frameworks petainists, and their Committee had frequently undergone the dispute of their representativeness by the diplomats anglo-saxons.
Il was thus important to reveal in force in these territories, the muzzled current of thought, but really dominating in metropolis, that of the hostility to the occupants and with their collaborators. This is why, it appeared necessary to reveal there truths representatives, in flesh and bone of resistance, as well as representatives of all the parties and trade unions not compromised in collaboration.

Project of free France still noncarried out

An Ordinance n° 16 of bearing 24 Sept. 1941 new organization of the public authorities of Free France had already envisaged the creation of such a representative assembly, within the framework of free France.

A commission of Reform of the State chaired by the socialist deputy Felix Gouin had chaired thereafter, at the beginning of 1943, a Commission of reform of the State, charged with studying the project of this representative assembly.

Proposal with Giraud of the Committee of London

The proposal to create, near the future unified French authority, a “Advisory counsel of French Resistance” had then appeared in the memorandum of February 26th, 1943 addressed by the National committee of London to the Giraud general.

Character representative of the Consultative Assembly

To ensure the least imperfectly possible the representation of the true majority of the French, the composition of this assembly was tripartite

Representation of Resistance

40 representatives of the various resistance movements of metropolis were chosen by the National council of resistance (CNR), including among the parties and trade unions which were members, and were sent to Algiers.

It was added 12 representatives of extra-metropolitan resistance to it chosen by those of metropolitan resistance.

Representation of the parties

20 representatives of the parliamentary parties, having voted against the full powerss with Pétain, were selected in the various political families:

5 Socialists
5 Radicals and UDSR
3 Communists
8 of the groups of the center and the Right-hand side

The members of Parliament having voted the full powerss with the Pétain Marshal were in theory ineligible there. However this ineligibility was likely to be raised by CNR or the CFLN.

Representation of the colonies in war

Representation of the territories

The representation of the territories of fighting France was ensured by 12 representatives of the territorial councils of which:

2 for each of the three general advices of Algeria
1 for each colonial general advice
1 for the colonial council of Senegal

Representation of the financial assemblies of North Africa

This representation included/understood:

6 members of the financial Delegations of Algeria,
4 members of the Government council Of the sherifs,
2 members of the Great Tunisian council.

Competences of the Consultative Assembly

Competences of this Parliament were supposed being purely advisory, while being able to be exerted on the initiative of the CFLN, or with that of the assembly:

Legislative competences of the Consultative Assembly

Consultations on the initiative of the CFLN

The Parliament was obligatorily to be consulted by the CFLN on her projects of ordinances.

The opinions of the Parliament were to be mentioned in the references of the adopted texts.

Consultations on the initiative of the Parliament (Opinion)

The opinions whose assembly took the initiative, to the 2/3 of its members, were to be mentioned in the references of the reform proposals addressed to the CFLN.

Political competences of the Consultative Assembly

At the time of the interventions of the police chiefs (ministers) in front of the Parliament, it was possible to the members of this authority to question them and to challenge them. Thus was born, on behalf of the latter a capacity of political pressure on the Committee.

Thus, although made up named members and purely advisory, this assembly showed it a great independence, as well as strong capacity of criticism and pressure on the CFLN.

The entry according to the Consultative Assembly

The re-establishment of the democratic forms

It is on November 3rd, 1943, which the Consultative Assembly held its first meeting with the palate of the financial Delegations.

The first consequence of its taking up the duties was a recombining of the CFLN, on November 9th, 1943, taking account of the distribution of the groups with the Parliament, and thus without the Giraud general.

November 10th, 1943, the Consultative Assembly elects like chair Felix Gouin, former deputy socialist who had refused the full powerss with Pétain in July 1940 (see Régime of Vichy) and had been interned thereafter by the Vichy government.

The increased representativeness of the mode of Algiers

The presence of this room of extremely independent discussion gave to the Committee of Algiers, which concentrated the legislative powers and executive between its hands, the democratic decoration which was going to contribute to put an end to the charges dictatorship pled against de Gaulle, by Vichyist French and American.

But, more still, overflowing its advisory powers, the assembly practically took part in the decisions of the CFLN. by causing them by its proposals or its capacity for a dissuasion, at the time of its interpellations.

When the CFLN, become “Provisional government of the French Republic” (GPRF), was transported to Paris, the provisional Consultative Assembly made in the same way and settled there in the buildings of the Senate.

The work of the Consultative Assembly

Support of the Parliament for the action of the CFLN for the re-establishment of sovereignty

As of at the end of November 1943, the Consultative Assembly held a debate on the external businesses, all the successive speakers affirmed that the CFLN was the Government of the Republic, and that the allies were to recognize it like tel.

The Parliament required also the denunciation of the Clark-Darlan agreements, which had imposed on the Vichyist authorities, overcome militarily in November 1942, a situation of subordination to the Anglo-Saxon authorities. De Gaulle, president of the CFLN, declared that with the eyes of France, these agreements did not exist.

Useful bonds were established following this debate, between various members of the Parliament and the diplomats or consular agents of the allied or neutral States represented in Algiers, which took the practice to attend the debates of the Parliament.

They is at the request of the Consultative Assembly that, on June 3rd, 1944, the C.F.L.N proclaimed “Provisional government of the French Republic” (G.P.R.F), thus affirming with the face of allied its sovereignty on the metropolitan territories to be released.

Support of the Parliament for the action of the CFLN for the armament of resistance

On January 8th and 9th 1944 a great debate took place on the assistance with metropolitan resistance. The speakers claimed weapons for the resistant ones which wanted to fight.

The Police chief inside, Emmanuel d' Astier and the associated Police chief, Jean-Pierre Bloch could only ensure them that this armament depended on the allies, but that the Committee would make all its efforts to obtain it

Support of the Parliament for the reforming action of the CFLN

The debates of the Parliament and the individual interventions of its members facilitated the re-establishment of the republican legislation by the Committee, and in particular of the Crémieux decree of 1870 which had allotted the French citizenship to the Jews of Algeria.

The Parliament, in the same way supported and even forced on the CFLN measurements of purification, against those which had benefitted from the defeat, to appease their phantasms politicking and taken part in collaboration.

The purification of Algiers was vigorously supported by the Parliament, which wanted that severe sanctions are taken in Algiers, to discourage from the collaborators and of torture metropolis serving the enemy and to continue their maltreatment. But it was manifestly insufficient, because police chiefs of CFLN applied only one very weak proportion of sanctions asked following investigations attentive and contradictory carried out by these commissions.
C' is even this insufficiency of purification of Algiers which was going to drive certain resistant subways, which had been informed, to sanction themselves and in a radical and expeditious way the traitors who were going to fall between their hands during the summer 1944. Admittedly this speed was going to generate several irrevocable errors. But the overall founded good of this action was confirmed thereafter, when the legal purification applied by magistrates, who all had lent oath to Pétain , except only one, Didier judge, left in freedom collaborators experienced such as the Bousquet minister, of torture Touvier, and the police chief with the Jewish Businesses Xavier Vallat.

The project of attribution of the right to vote to the women gave place, him-also with debate at the Consultative Assembly. It indeed met the opposition of the Socialists and radicals, which feared the vote of the Frenchwomen: Those, indeed, were considered to be subject to, according to them, “the influence of their confessors”. On the other hand the Christian democrats supported this reform (probably for the same reason) . But it was also supported by the Communists, who estimated that it was as a voter, that the women acquèreraient the political training, which would then put them safe from the influence of the aforesaid confessors.

Sources and bibliography

Charles de Gaulle: Memories of Guerre :

Volume II - the Unit, 1942-1944 , Paris, 1956,
Volume III - Safety, 1944-1946 , Paris, 1959.

Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, Free France, Gallimard, Paris, 1996.
Yves Maxime Danan, political life in Algiers, of 1940 to 1944 , General Bookstore of Right and Jurisprudence, Paris, 1963.
Christine Levisse-Touzé, North Africa, during the Second world war , Albin Michel, Paris, 1998.
Emmanuel CARTIER, the constitutional transition in France (1940-1945). The rebuilding " révolutionnaire" of an legal order " républicain" , LGDJ, coll Public law, Paris, 2005,665 p. of thesis 2005 of the National Assembly and Wolowski Price of the Academy of Science morals and policies (section legislation) 2007.

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