On 22 June, the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed between France and Germany ending hostilities. Northern and western France was placed under German occupation, while Alsace-Lorraine was placed under direct German administration, in essence becoming a " de facto" part of Germany although it was never formally annexed. Italy would occupy its own zone in the southeast, with the rest of Metropolitan France being an unoccupied zone, the "zone libre". The armistice called for the whole of Metropolitan France except Alsace-Lorraine to be governed by the newly formed Vichy government ("État Français") led by Pétain, although in practice Pétain's authority in the occupied zones was very limited. Vichy was nominally independent, and still controlled French overseas colonies, but in practice was essentially a German client state.