The Bayeux speech (1946)

It was in Bayeux that the occupied French people saw their liberator speak for the first time. This small town in Normandy, 5 km from the coast, was very quickly won back by Allied troops after the D-Day landings in 1944. So it was there that general de Gaulle delivered his first address to the people of France on 14 June. The enthusiastic welcome he received convinced him to reject outright the administrative supervision and the currency which the Americans were planning to introduce in France.

Two years later, when he wanted to set out his constitutional project, he remembered that symbolic location. Although he had resigned from the government in January 1946 and had not spoken publicly since then, he travelled to Bayeux on 16 June of that year to set out his vision for the French constitution: a strong presidential regime in which the Head of State would be the cornerstone of the executive power, with a bicameral parliament. 

While the speech had a limited impact, now with the benefit of hindsight, it is interesting to see clearly mapped out the political principles which de Gaulle implemented upon his return to power in 1958, and which shaped the constitution of the 5th Republic. 

See the video of General de Gaulle’s address in Bayeux: