Vichy legitimacy and the Gaullist continuity thesis

Vichy operated French administrative machinery under German occupation and retained the appearance of effective state government, while some foreign states maintained diplomatic relations with it. The legality of the 10 July 1940 delegation of powers to Philippe Pétain, especially whether it could lawfully authorize constituent power, became central to the postwar argument; Vichy also abandoned the republican designation and called itself the French State. The ordinance of 9 August 1944 declared the so-called constitutional law of 10 July and constitutional acts based on it null, while allowing regulations compatible with republican principles to be validated retrospectively in order to preserve administrative continuity. De Gaulle's explanation that he did not proclaim the Republic anew in Paris because it had never ceased to exist gave this legal construction its political expression. The thesis does not erase Vichy's administrative collaboration or responsibility for persecution; it separates the legal identity of the state from the legitimacy of the regime.