Riom Trial

The Riom Trial (19 February 1942 – 21 May 1943) was an attempt by the Vichy France regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic (1870–1940) had been responsible for France's defeat by Germany in 1940. The trial was held in the city of Riom, and had mainly political aims, namely to project the responsibility of defeat on the leaders of the Popular Front government that had been elected in 1936.

The Supreme Court of Justice, created by a 30 July 1940 decree, was empowered by a decree of the Vichy regime "to judge whether the former ministers or their immediate subordinates had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created." The period examined by the Court went from 1936 (the beginning of the Popular Front administration, under Léon Blum) to Paul Reynaud's 1940 cabinet. The trial, supported by the Nazis, had the secondary aim of demonstrating that the responsibility of the war rested with France (which had officially declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland) and not on Adolf Hitler's policies.

The trial did not go according to plan. The defendants were largely successful in rebutting the charges, and won sympathetic coverage in the international press. The trial was suspended in March 1942, and formally abandoned in May 1943.