Deputy Prime Minister of France

The deputy prime minister of France was a position which existed at times in the government of France between 1870 and 1958. It was titled vice president of the Council of Ministers () from 1871, or vice president of the Council for short.

It was in itself a sinecure, used to grant seniority immediately after the prime minister to one important member of the government, later up to three at the same time, but without specific duty or power, or any role as designated acting prime minister. However, in 1871–1876 and 1940–1942, it was actually used for the prime minister, as the position was nominally held by the head of state.

Position

As deputy The position of deputy prime minister existed only occasionally during the Third Republic (1870–1940, starting only in the 1910s), the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944–1946), and the Fourth Republic (1946–1958).

As for all other members of the government, the appointment, or removal, was formally by the head of state, but bowing to the decision of the prime minister.

Although it implied a role of deputy head of government, the position was in itself a sinecure, which brought seniority right after the prime minister (president of the Council), but came without any specific duty or power unless arranged by separate decisions, or any role as designated acting prime minister. The holder sometimes concurrently served as minister for a specific government department, as did the prime minister at the end of the Third Republic, but was otherwise a top-ranking minister without portfolio, with informal responsibilities. A responsibility was however directly assigned to the vice presidency on two occasions, in 1938–1940 when Camille Chautemps was put in charge of coordination of the recently established Office of the Prime Minister, and in 1951 when Guy Mollet was in charge of the Council of Europe. There was initially only one holder at a time, while a position of minister of state, which ranked higher than ordinary ministers, could be granted to several members, also with or without portfolio; there were however up to three vice presidencies in later governments.

Depending on the political situation, it could reflect the personal standing of the holder, especially if he was a former prime minister, or his role as leader or representative of an important party of the government combination, especially for the two junior parties of the in 1946–1947. Positions of minister of state were already used for the same purpose since the 19th century; deputy prime ministers ranked above these when both existed at the same time, making it possible for the prime minister to draw up a subtle order of seniority.

The first holder was Aristide Briand in 1914, chosen at the start of World War I by René Viviani; as the government had partially transferred from Paris to Bordeaux, this enabled him to deputize for Vivani, or for the foreign and war ministers, when they came and went between the two cities. Viviani was also the first prime minister not holding a specific portfolio in order to concentrate on the coordination of an expanding state apparatus. §12–17 in particular. The last was Guy Mollet in 1958.

An equivalent position had also existed in a provisional government, the Government of National Defence (1870–1871), which had a vice president ().

As head of government In two short periods, the title was however used for the head of government himself, because the head of state formally held the position of prime minister as well.

In 1871, for lack of a permanent constitution, Adolphe Thiers was installed as chief executive of the French Republic in February; while the Rivet Law granted him the title of president of the Republic in August, this was in compensation for a restriction of his powers by the National Assembly, under which ministers were made responsible to the assembly. As he wanted to maintain a direct involvement in government business and kept the additional position of prime minister, the minister to whom he delegated the leadership of the quasi-national government formed in February on 2 September, the minister of justice Jules Armand Dufaure, received the title of vice president of the Council. His successor Patrice de MacMahon left a larger degree of autonomy to his deputy. After republicans won the 1876 legislative election, MacMahon, a monarchist, accepted to appoint a republican ministry, but on 9 March transferred the title of president of the Council to its leader, Dufaure again, in order to stress that he took no responsibility for it. In his government statement, Dufaure defined his new position by declaring that he had been “chosen by the President of the Republic to exercise in his name the powers conferred on him by the Constitution”.

At the start of the Vichy Regime (1940–1944), Philippe Pétain, the last prime minister of the Third Republic who proclaimed himself head of the French State, made Pierre Laval the leading minister when he re-appointed him as his deputy on 12 July. Pétain dismissed and replaced Laval a few months later, but he was eventually forced by the German occupation authorities to recall him with increased prerogatives on 18 April 1942, upon which he granted him the title of head of the Government (), even though he himself nominally kept the title of president of the Council.

List

Holder and concurrent position Government Term of office Party colspan="7" colspan="7" Jules FavreMinister of Foreign Affairs National Defence 4September 1870 13February 1871 Moderate Republicans colspan="7" colspan="7" Aristide BriandMinister of Justice 2nd Viviani 26August 1914 29October 1915 PRS René VivianiMinister of Justice 5th Briand 29October 1915 12December 1916 PRS colspan="7" Joseph CaillauxMinister of Finance 10th Briand 23June 1926 23July 1926 Radical colspan="7" Lucien HubertMinister of Justice 1st Tardieu 3November 1929 24February 1930 Radical colspan="7" Paul Reynaud (1st)Minister of Justice and for the Control of Public Administrations 3rd Tardieu 20February 1932 3June 1932 AD colspan="7" Albert DalimierMinister of Justice 1st Sarraut 26October 1933 24November 1933 Radical colspan="7" Édouard Daladier (1st)Minister of National Defence and War 1st Blum 4June 1936 21June 1937 Radical Léon Blum (1st) 3rd Chautemps 23June 1937 14January 1938 SFIO Édouard Daladier (2nd–3rd)Minister of National Defence and War 4th Chautemps, 2nd Blum 18January 1938 8April 1938 Radical Camille Chautemps (1st)In charge of coordination of the Office of the Prime Minister 3rd Daladier 10April 1938 20March 1940 Radical Camille Chautemps (2nd)Minister of Coordination (of the Office of the Prime Minister) Reynaud 21March 1940 16June 1940 Radical Philippe PétainMinister of State 18May 1940 Independent Camille Chautemps (3rd)Minister of State Pétain 16June 1940 11July 1940 Radical Pierre Laval (1st)Minister of State 23June 1940 Independent colspan="7" colspan="7" Francisque Gay Gouin 26January 1946 12June 1946 MRP Maurice Thorez (1st) PCF Félix Gouin 1st Bidault 24June 1946 28November 1946 SFIO Maurice Thorez (2nd) PCF colspan="7" Pierre-Henri Teitgen (1st)Minister of State (from 4May: in charge of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform) 1st Ramadier 22January 1947 21October 1947 MRP Maurice Thorez (3rd)Minister of State 4May 1947 PCF colspan="7" Pierre-Henri Teitgen (2nd) Marie 26July 1948 28August 1948 MRP Léon Blum (2nd) SFIO André Marie (1st) 2nd Schuman 5September 1948 11September 1948 Radical André Marie (2nd)Minister of Justice 1st Queuille 11September 1948 13February 1949 Radical Robert LecourtMinister of Justice 13February 1949 5October 1949 MRP Henri Queuille (1st) 2nd Bidault 28October 1949 7February 1950 Radical Jules MochMinister of the Interior SFIO Henri Queuille (2nd)Minister of the Interior 3rd Bidault 7February 1950 24June 1950 Radical Georges Bidault (1st) 2nd Queuille 2July 1950 4July 1950 MRP colspan="7" Georges Bidault (2nd) 3rd Queuille 10March 1951 10July 1951 MRP René Pleven UDSR Guy Mollet (1st)In charge of the Council of Europe. SFIO Georges Bidault (3rd)Minister of National Defence 2nd Pleven 11August 1951 7January 1952 MRP René MayerMinister of Finance and Economic Affairs Radical Georges Bidault (4th)Minister of National Defence 1st Faure 20January 1952 28February 1952 MRP Henri Queuille (3rd)Minister of State Radical colspan="7" Henri Queuille (4th) Mayer 8January 1953 21May 1953 Radical Paul Reynaud (2nd) Laniel 28June 1953 12June 1954 CNIP Henri Queuille (5th) Radical Pierre-Henri Teitgen (3rd) MRP colspan="7" Guy Mollet (2nd) Pflimlin 15May 1958 28May 1958 SFIO

Earlier and later systems

The meetings of the Council of Ministers have always been chaired by the head of state (emperor, king, president); when the role of head of government emerged in the late 1810s under the Restoration, the title of “president” of that body came to be used, because it included the responsibility to prepare the agenda and the business to be dealt with. This was initially only by convention, and the position or title of head of government had no legal existence until 1830; some other ministers were informally considered second-in-command, but were not commonly called vice president.

During the Second Empire (1852–1870), the position of prime minister had been pointedly abolished by Napoleon III, who led government business in person, but the minister of state, who was ranked first and was close to the Emperor, came to be seen as the , especially when speaking in the name of the Emperor in important parliamentary business.

Although the position of prime minister came in legal existence when it re-emerged in the 1870s, the office did not appear in a French constitution before 1946; that of deputy never did.

A position of deputy prime minister under the Fifth Republic (1958–present), which would be titled to reflect the change in name of the prime ministerial position, has never been granted. The Constitution simply provides that the prime minister "may delegate certain of his powers to ministers" (article 21). Nicolas Hulot, who served as minister for the ecological and solidary transition with the rank of minister of state in the first year of Emmanuel Macron's presidency, had long publicly called for a position of deputy prime minister in charge of the environment, and said that Macron had considered his elevation, but determined that it would be "not constitutional".

Deputy Prime Minister of France

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