France

Political humourists both inside and outside the bund often joke that France won the war but lost the peace. Of course the Rhineland crisis was not really a war, but it was a military confrontation in which Germany backed down. But the price of defanging German nationalism was that France, shorn of support from its Anglo-Saxon allies, found itself increasingly locked into a relationship with Germany, and in a peaceful relationship, even though France was allowed to retain treasured nationalist talismans such as Alsace-Lorraine, the long-term economic balance of power has meant France has had to be content with the role of decidely junior partner to Germany in the Europa bund.

If a martian were to come to earth and view raw statistics they would presume that France is one of the world´s foremost powers. It controls a vast colonial empire, enjoys a high standard of living, has one of the world´s largest miltiaries and economies, and even belongs to the exclusive club of nuclear weapons powers. This is all true, but it obscures many weaknesses. The colonial empire has been in a state of constant revolt since the 1950s and there is little sign of a permanent peace. The military is large but is dispersed in colonial conflicts and tied to the bund military structure, where it is subordinate to Germany. Even the nuclear weapons are more of a cosmetic token of theoretical sovereignty than a serious tool of statecraft.

Having said that, France has not suffered the collapse some feared it would endure in the 1920s and 1930s. The late 1940s and 1950s bought an economic boom which, while it has slowed, is still paying dividends. France is no longer a global superpower, but status as Germany´s junior partner is better than the quasi-puppet status most other Europabund states endure, and there is no doubt that France is the second most powerful state in the bund, even if it is a very distant second. Paris enjoys the status of Europe´s second city, and in some limited aspects, such as cuisine or fashion, it is still Paris, not Berlin, that leads. The bund´s headquarters are based in Strasbourg, a French city, although some French nationalists grumble that Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine as a whole have been "Europanised".

Politically France still clings to the constitutional structure of the Third Republic but the structure has become less and less relevant to day to day political life. In the 1940s a strong challenge to the legitimacy of the republic by the French communist party was met by a strong response from the state, which deployed a wide range of quasi-legal and extra-legal methods to drive the communists out of the halls of power. French Presidents, who were previously largely ceremonial figures, have been handed more and more executive power through emergency legislation that has never been repealed. The President is still elected to a six year term. Although communism is no longer a major ideology in France, the repressive tools remain. Elections are still held, but ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, bribery and a range of other methods are semi-openly deployed to ensure that the Chamber of Deputies is always filled with government loyalists - some tokenist opposition is permitted but it is always attenuated and disorganised. Since the 1940s France has been ruled by a series of strongmen who theoretically rise above politics but are generally conservative and autocratic. A young general names Charles de Gaulle ruled as President of the Republic for most of the 50s, before being replaced in 1960 by Jacques Soustelle, a conservative anthropologist who had previously served as a Governor of Algeria. Sostelle became identified very strongly with the military preservation of the French Empire, and made numerous concessions to Germany in exchange for military support in France´s colonial wars in Africa and Southeast Asia. Soustelle stood down in 1970 and was replaced by General Edmond Jouhaud, an *Armee de lÁir* general famous for brutal bombing campaigns in Vietnam and Algeria, who once again vowed that there would be no compromise on maintaining the French Empire through force.

Despite all this, in one notable difference to the German Reich, France still uses the term "Republic" to describe itself and identifies its head of state as a President.

Like many other countries in the bund France has very harsh anti-minority policies. Like Germany, Jews are not legally discriminated against but often face informal discrimination, although Paris, like Berlin, has become something of a haven for Jews despite this. Homosexuality remains illegal under laws passed in the 1940s. The communist party has been outlawed and the socialist party disbanded. In 1955 under President deGaulle the main trade unions were forcibly disbanded after being accused of being communist organisations. One of the surviving christian trade unions, the *Confederation Francaise de Travaileurs Chretiens*, was elevated to quasi-official status in a development that very closely follows the German model.

French government, 1936-present:

President: 1936-1940: Albert LeBrun, 1940-1946: Pierre Laval, 1946-1958: Charles deGaulle, 1958-1970: Jacques Soustelle, 1970-?: Edmond Jouhaud

Prime Minister: 1936: Pierre Laval, 1936: Albert Sarrault, 1936-1940: Pierre Laval, 1940-1944: Maxime Weygand, 1944-1946: Francois Darlan, 1946-1950: Jacques Soustelle, 1950-1958: Jacques Foccart, 1958-1964: Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, 1964-1970: Pierre Bosquet, 1970-?: Comte Alexandre de Marenches