The Second
Bayeux
Bayeux (, ; ) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.
Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It is also known as the fir ...
speech was a speech delivered by General
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
of France in the immediate postwar period on 16 June 1946. It was one of his most important speeches.
Two years after the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
, symbolically in the first city in continental France liberated by the Allies, where he
set foot on French soil in June 1944 and in the wake of the
failure to ratify a
proposed left wing constitution, de Gaulle gave a speech where he talked about the shape that he wanted the
French Constitution
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a 1971 ...
to take.
When De Gaulle appeared on the balcony of the
town hall in Bayeux
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
, the public greeted him with cries of "Take power!"
[
]
De Gaulle advocated a reduction in the power of the parliament, going as far as to say, "It goes without saying that the parliament, which is composed of two chambers and exercises legislative power, cannot be the source of executive power". He said he supported a bicameral parliament with a head of state standing above the parties.
[
] In a state of emergency, the head of state would be the guarantor of national independence and the treaties signed by France.
Although mostly ignored in the
constitution that was subsequently adopted, the ideas that he put forward in his speech would inspire the
1958 Constitution.
References
External links
French transcript of the second Bayeux speech* http://mairie-bayeux.fr/index.php?id=238
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayeux speech, 2
Speeches by Charles de Gaulle
Provisional government of the French Republic
Military history of Calvados (department)
World War II speeches
Bayeux
1946 speeches
1946 in France