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Amandine Vachez
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He chose to defend his homeland, and engaged other than politicallyduring the Great war. An old president of the Republic of France was in fact carried voluntary to join a regiment. He also took part in one of the most famous battles in the country’s history, that of Verdun in 1916.
Engaged on the front, until the end of the war
Le Havrais was 32 years old at the start of the First World War. René Coty, son of a college principal and former student at the University of Caen, had been exempted from military service for being thin. But in 1914, when he was a lawyer and wore various hats in politics, he voluntarily became involved in the conflict.
It is integrated into the 29th infantry regimentet renounces being part of the officials’ platoon for the foreheadwhere he remains until January 1919. He notably participated in the infamous Battle of Verdunwhich spanned 300 days in 1916, and would later be decorated with the War Cross and the Volunteer Combatant’s Cross.
Between the wars, he suffered a failure in the municipal elections, in which he would no longer run, recalls L’Élysée. He devotes himself to state functions : Undersecretary of State for the Interior (1930) and senator (1936-1940). A highlight in his career: he vote in 1940 for full powers to Marshal Pétainbefore staying away from public life (1941-1943).
A vote for full powers in Pétain…
 July 10 [1940]when René Coty votes for the delegation of full powers to the government of Marshal Pétain, it is to the fighter of the Great War that this former member of Mangin’s ‘iron division’ grants his vote’, locates the Senate website.
And to continue by indicating that after the proclamation of the French state, withdrawn to his city of Le Havre, René Coty “refused his appointment as head of the town hall in 1941, then that of departmental councilor in 1942…” declaring: “I reflect that if I could consider myself elected once again by my fellow citizens, I would no less be appointed by the Vichy government. As a parliamentarian, as a politician, could I even give the appearance of representing a government whose policies I disapproved…
… before assuming opposition to the Vichy regime
In 1943he joins around twenty sénateurs à Paris, pour Develop a draft Constitution with a view to “…ensuring the safeguarding of republican institutions when the Vichy government disappears…”, reports the Senate. This group of “resistant senators”, led by Théodore Steeg and of which he is the secretary, “considers that it is up to Parliament to prepare the transition between Vichy, whose days are numbered, and the regime of post-war, with the main aim of avoiding communist subversion as well as the exclusion of the Upper House…” describes archivist Sophie Hachou, in a text devoted to the diaries of René Coty*.
It was after the Second World War that René Coty officially returned to political life. He had previously been déclaré inéligible pour son vote de 1940. But in 1945, an honorary jury considered that the man had, “…publicly, on various occasions, demonstrated his political opposition to the usurper”; this opposition has been constant since 1940. He participated in and organized clandestine meetings of resistance fighters at his home, particularly in the presence of representatives of Free France. ”
He will then occupy various functions…: deputy, minister, senator… Before becoming, the December 23, 1953, President of the Republic and the French Union, on the 13the tower, at the age of 72. He succeeds Vincent Auriol, first president of the 4th Republic. Five years later, Charles de Gaulle came to power, with the 5th Republic. The constitutional project proposed by René Coty and his working group will not be retained by the general.
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