
Emmanuel Macron lays a wreath in front of the building where the first meeting of the National Council of the Resistance took place on May 27, 1948.
AFP / © Ludovic Marin
The National Resistance Council (CNR) was founded in 1943 at the instigation of General de Gaulle to clandestinely coordinate the various Resistance movements during the Second World War. Composed of six political parties, two trade unions and eight representatives of resistance movements, it brings together members from very diverse political currents around a common enemy: the Vichy government.
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The presidency of the board is entrusted to Jean Moulin, General de Gaulle’s personal delegate, whose legitimacy he established with the Allies, who then preferred General Henri Giraud to him as their official interlocutor. The first meeting of the CNR is held on May 27 in Paris in René Corbin’s apartment, on the first floor of 48 rue du Four. Jean Moulin was captured in Caluire a few weeks later following a betrayal and died tortured without revealing anything about the CNR, which preserved the secret organization from dismantling. Under the new leadership of Georges Bidault, the National Council of Resistance is reorganized and, after several months of negotiations, its members adopted a common program in two parts:
🔴Action plan who organizes the military action
🔴A government program which outlines the program of the major economic and social reforms of the post-war period (revaluation of wages, comprehensive social security plan, extension of the right to retirement).
After the Liberation, the influence of the National Council of Resistance gradually dissolved. However, the CNR remains a symbol of national cohesion and resistance. It is from this CNR that Emmanuel Macron was inspired to found the National Refoundation Council (CNR).