Timeline #1 - North and South
What if France was divided in a Soviet dominated post WWII Europe?
General Secretaries of the Unified Party of French Workers (North France)
1949 - 1963: Maurice Thorez (PUTF)
1963 - 1970: Auguste Lecœur (PUTF)
1970 - 1973: Waldeck Rochet (PUTF)
1973 - 1983: Maurice Kriegal-Valrimont (PUTF)
1983-: André Duroméa (PUTF)
Prime Ministers of the Republic of France (South France)
1949 - 1953: Georges Bidault (MRP-Radical-PRL) [1]
1953 - 1958: Georges Bidault (MRP-Radical-PRL) [2]
1958 - 1963: Georges Bidault (MRP-PRL) [3]
1963 - 1967: François Mitterrand (MRP-PRL-PRD-FNAF) [4]
1967 - 1969: François Mitterrand (MRP-PRL-PRD-FNAF) [5]
1969 - 1971: Alain Poher (MRP-PRL-PRD-FNAF) [6]
1971 - 1975: Gaston Defferre (SFIO-Radical) [7]
1975 - 1979: Gaston Defferre (SFIO-Radical) [8]
1979 - 1981: Gaston Defferre (SFIO-Radical) [9]
1981- 1984: Robert Badinter (SFIO-Radical-FDA) [10]
1984 - : Jacque Foccart (PRL-MRP-PRD-FNAF) [11]
[1] After a failed D-Day and a delayed liberation of Western Europe, at the end of World War II France was considered a defeated state and was divided into occupation zones. A rupture was soon felt along the Seine separating the Soviet occupation zone to the north and the Anglo-Americans to the south. In 1949, the rupture was made unavoidable with the proclamation of the French People's Republic in the north and the Republic of France in the south.
[2] The first few years for both Republics would prove to be rocky. Thorez suffered a stoke in 1949 which reduced his ability to truly unify all the parties of the Unified Party of French workers and while he retained nominal control as General Secretary and Premier of the Council, most of the actual work in this time was done by his deputy Jacques Duclos. Meanwhile, Bidault struggled with the ‘Algeria Question’ as calls for integration were met with fears that the South may be overrun. Elections were held in both countries in 1953 (neither fully free or fair, but the South noticeably freer and fairer), with increasing tension arising amongst North and South Parisian citizens.
[3] While France had to abandon its Colonial Empire after World War II (with Thorez meeting symbolically with Ho Chi Minh to sign the Independence and Solidarity documents), Algeria had long been considered part of the French metropolis and Bidault was not going to lose it. Moving the capital from the southern outskirts of Paris to Toulouse, he used American Cold War fears to help him pacify "Algerian communist terrorists." He was also able to strengthen the power of the Prime Minister (compared to Italy, which had already gone through 14 prime ministers in the post-war period). Meanwhile, Thorez continued to strengthen his grip on power, with the PUTF reportedly winning 99.46% of the vote with a 98.5% turnout.
[4] The year 1963 was a pivotal year that saw the demise of two strong men who had each led one of the new countries for over a decade. In the north, Thorez died suddenly during a trip to the Soviet Union. His remains were brought back to Paris and were the object of a ridiculous propaganda procession on the Champs Elysées covered with red flags and posters. This procession turned into a bloodbath when a group of workers interrupted it to demand better working conditions. The army fired on the crowd and hundreds of demonstrators fled south and tried to swim across the nearby Seine. Between those who ended up drowned by the current and those who were shot, this day was nicknamed the "Day of the Scarlet Seine". One of the first decisions of Auguste Lecœur, the young Stalinist who succeeded Thorez, was the destruction of the north bank of the Seine on hundreds of meters and its replacement by a "defense" system that was soon extinguished with varying intensity along the entire river. In the south, it was the prolongation of the Algerian "events" that weakened Bidault to the point that he gave up running again. The young Minister of the Interior, the conservative Catholic and hardliner François Mitterrand took over the leadership of the MRP and managed to gather behind him a coalition of his party, the PRL, the Radical Democratic Party, a center-right split of the Radical Party and, more importantly, the radical right-wing National Front for French Algeria.
[5] The successors to the “Founding Fathers” could have taken their two French states in such different directions. Lecœur, used his ascension to power to purge the government of his rivals (most notably Duclos who was “promoted” to EuroCom, a newly established body to foster economic, military and cultural solidarity between the Socialist European States) and further secure the border between the two French states. He also began a process of trying to establish a “Northern French” culture separate from the reactionary and bourgeois South. Mitterand meanwhile, despite being one of the leading figures of the right, began a slow liberalisation as part of his “carrot and stick” approach, in which voting rights were expanded, hours of the working week shortened, and the government monopoly on media relaxed, coupled with a strong focus on law and order, in particular vastly increasing the militarization of the police, and a commitment to the South (even publicly musing about moving the “temporary” capital to Marseilles). As Mitterand himself put it “Algiers is France.”
[6] While the claws of authoritarianism were closing harder on the North, the shooting of François Mitterrand in Algiers in 1969 marked a new turning point in the South. While investigators could not determine whether it was the work of increasingly rare Algerian independence fighters, communists or a mentally ill person, the centrist finance minister Alain Poher was appointed Prime Minister in an emergency. An uncertainty gnawed at the country as everyone feared that History was on the move again.
[7] The beginning of a new decade marked 21 years of formalized postwar division and like a 21-year-old, changes were inevitable, and sometimes chaotic! The first change (perhaps surprisingly) occurred in the north. Secure in their relative dominance of the continent, Soviet governments across Europe began a fragile experiment in liberalization (based on the mostly successful "Czech" model). Lecœur viewed his country as a defensive frontier that refused to accept reforms, and his unapologetic Stalinist approach led to increased immigration both south (and with less risk) north and east. It was only a matter of time before Lecœur received the phone call from Moscow: he was outside and the more flexible Rochet was inside. Rochet was largely seen as a placeholder, as for the first time the post of Secretary General was also not rewarded with the Premier of the Council - that post went to Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont. Meanwhile, in the south, Poher, while receiving praise for holding the government together in the wake of Mitterand's death, was forced into a snap election in which the ruling coalition lost to the leftist forces of Defferre, who promised a new approach for "our neighbours to both the North and South!”
[8] Defferre immediately made good on his promise of a new approach, pursuing a policy of rapprochement abroad and reconciliation at home. Societal laws included; lowering the voting age to 18, introducing Civil Right measures to protect citizens of Algerian descent, and making it easier to be declared a consciousness objector. He also opened more universities and technical constituents while lowering or abolishing study fees. Internationally, he became the first Prime Minister of South France to meet with Soviet leaders including with Rochet who infamously spoke at length about his adulteration for Marx in an almost religious tone. For these efforts Defferre received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize while Rochet and Kriegel-Valrimont swapped positions of General Secretary and Premier. Valrimont (as he was usually known) moved the North from a Command Economy to the New Economic System that was becoming popular across the continent. Rochet meanwhile was kept busy on diplomatic and cultural missions, although his microphone as usually kept switched off in public.
[9] Defferre's national reform program accomplished more than any previous program during a comparable period. Levels of social spending were increased, more funds were allocated for housing, transportation, schools, and communications, and significant federal benefits were provided to farmers. Various measures were introduced to expand health coverage, while federal aid to sports organizations was increased. A series of liberal social reforms were instituted while the welfare state expanded significantly, with health, housing and social welfare laws producing welcome improvements and, at the end of Defferre's turn, South France had one of most advanced welfare systems world. However, all of this did little to stop the rise of the Algerian revolts (both for and against, very similar to the situation Britain faced in Northern Ireland) and many inside the party pushed for a new younger leader. In the meantime, Valrimont struggled to match the reforms of the South, having to juggle the competing demands of Moscow, the needs of the citizens of northern France, and the wishes of his more reactionary colleagues.
[10] After 10 years in office, an aging Gaston Defferre announced that he would step down as party president and prime minister. The Minister of Justice, Robert Badinter, succeeded Defferre by proposing a program of amnesties and reconciliation around Algeria. To the horror of many, he proposed to the Algerian Democratic Front, a small "native" unionist party, to enter the government. Meanwhile in the North, Valrimont was forced to leave. With no faction to fall back on, unpopular with reformists, reactionaries, workers and the military, he preferred to withdraw before being violently removed. The death of Waldeck Rochet at the same time left a great void in the organization of the party and to the surprise of many, the election of the general secretary by the members of the party was quite free and competitive. André Duroméa, the Secretary of the Seine-Maritime section of the party was appointed General secretary by a consensual approach and a rather vague line.
[11] Badinter proved to be a controversial leader. Building on the foundations of his predecessor Badinter pushed pushed South French society into a more just and equitable society, winning high praise internationally while outraging the more conservetive elements. He abolished the special Algerian courts, further strengthened civil rights laws, and most controversially apologised for the “cultrural genocide” of the African inhabitants. Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he narrowly lost the 1984 election to Jacque Foccart who argued that Southern France was weakened its image at the expense of the North. Duroméa’s elevation meanwhile of Jacques “The Bulldozer” Chirac from Chair of the Parisian Council to a member of the Inner Politburo confirmed that he was seeking a much more consensus based government than his predecessors.
