Foundation
The RPF was founded by Charles de Gaulle in Strasbourg on April 14, 1947, one year after the resignation of De Gaulle from the presidency of the provisional government and four months after the proclamation of the Fourth Republic. It advocated a constitutional revision in order to institute a presidential government. Indeed, for De Gaulle, the "regime of the parties" which characterized the parliamentary system, did not permit the advent of a strong and efficient state. However, in French Republican culture, democracy and parliamentary sovereignty were inseparable. De Gaulle was accused of wanting to establish a Bonapartist government, a solitary power.
A resolute opponent of the parties (as in his mind, they served particular interests and divided the nation), de Gaulle wanted the RPF to be a rally, not a political party and allowed members of other parties (except Communists and former Vichy regime supporters) to join without compromising their other membership, but this hope was never realized. By 1948, the party counted half a million members, just behind the Communist Party. The RPF was able to gain the support of Maurrasien royalists (of the Action Française), leftist republicans (André Malraux), moderates, christian democrats (Edmond Michelet), radicals (Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Michel Debré), and even socialists and communists. Nevertheless, most of its voters came from the right-wing electorate.
Read more about this topic: Rally Of The French People
Famous quotes containing the word foundation:
“A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)
“... in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquillity will return again.”
—Anne Frank (1929–1945)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)