Reynard's current situation is actually very embarrassing. He is not as good as de Gaulle in terms of contribution, and he is not as good as Felix Gouin in terms of support rate. The key is that he still has the negative aura of being the "richest man in France", which is very bad.
Leonard himself has always wanted to minimize the aura of his wealth and did not want people to notice it.
Leonard's competitors also know this, so the "richest man" has become the biggest weapon for Leonard's competitors to attack Leonard.
The war's devastation to France was obvious to all, and everyone was greatly affected. Mountains and rivers were broken, and wives and children were separated——
Why was it that while other French people were suffering from the pain caused by the war, your Renard's net worth not only was not affected in any way during the war, but actually increased several times?
In this question, it is no longer important whether the way to make money is correct, wealth itself is the original sin.
Taking all things into consideration, Leonard's campaign team suggested that Leonard should be low-key and pragmatic, and not focus on publicity, but on economic recovery and reconstruction.
This also plays into Leonard's hands.
Rebuilding the transportation system is not only beneficial to France, but also beneficial to Reynard himself.
Leonard is a businessman. Whether it is goods from southern Africa or products produced in factories under Leonard's name, they all need to be circulated to create wealth.
The simplest example is that if France could have a highway system as developed as Southern Africa or Germany, France's demand for cars would increase many times, and then Reynard would become the biggest beneficiary.
During the war, in order to delay the German reinforcements, the Allied forces targeted railways as their main target of attack, especially in the southwest region where the fighting was fiercest. More than 80% of the damage was caused by Allied bombing.
"Is it because we don't want the railway to resume operation? Not at all, we don't have a railway now!" Leonard has nowhere to redress his grievances, and he can only bear the blame.
Although Leonard did not order the railway to be blown up.
But as Prime Minister of France's interim government, it is Leonard's unshirkable responsibility to resume railway operations.
Railway workers don't care how difficult it is to repair the railway. They have no income without work. It's all because of Leonard's inability.
"Technicians from southern Africa are surveying, and the design drawings will not be completed until at least the end of the year. This is just the first step. We still have a lot of work to do next. The specific implementation may have to wait until 1947." Henry looked at Reina.
De's vision is a little complicated.
It is actually a relatively optimistic prediction that construction can start in 1947.
The situation in France is different from that in southern Africa.
When Southern Africa was building railways, there were undeveloped and unclaimed wastelands along the coast. The workers were Africans recruited from neighboring countries through manpower agencies. With the federal government and private railway companies taking a hands-off approach, Southern Africa was built to connect various states.
It took ten years to put together the railway network.
There are many difficulties in building railways in France. Among other things, land acquisition is daunting enough.
"Now is the best opportunity to solve this problem. We can't delay." Leonard is ready to face difficulties.
It is difficult to acquire land now, and it will be even more difficult to postpone it to the future.
The war is not over yet, and those who fled France before the war have not yet had time to return to France. Coupled with the destruction of the war, southwest France is left with ten rooms and nine empty rooms.
Since the owner is not here, things are easier to handle. You can get on the bus first and then pay for the ticket, which is a fait accompli.
In this way, even if the original owner files a lawsuit with the French government after he returns, it will have nothing to do with Leonard.
Because by then most likely the prime minister will have been replaced.
What's more, there is also huge good news now, that is, there are nearly one million Axis prisoners of war in France.
The attitude of the European Allied forces towards Axis prisoners of war was completely different from that of the East Asian Allied forces and the Russian army.
The attitude of the Allied forces in East Asia towards prisoners of war cannot be said to be exactly the same as the attitude of the German army towards Russian prisoners of war. Instead, it was intensified, and the obedient ones were kept as free labor, and resistance to the end was a dead end.
Strictly speaking, there were no prisoners of war in Russia, because most prisoners of war were shot on the spot.
As for the prisoners of war sent to Russia, their identities——
It cannot be said, it cannot be said.
Return to France.
Most of the Axis prisoners of war in France were not Germans, but servants recruited by Germany.
Even for German prisoners of war, the French Provisional Government did not actually retaliate brutally, but instead squeezed the value of their labor as much as possible. This was one of the important reasons why Leonard frantically promoted the reconstruction of the French transportation system.
Where will millions of young and strong free laborers find such good things in a few years?
After figuring out this relationship, Henry looked at Leonard again, his eyes full of admiration.
These days, there are not many people who can do practical things in a down-to-earth manner.
Especially in an environment like France.
In fact, the reconstruction work has been very effective now, and Leonard came to inspect the reconstruction of Cherbourg this time.
During the Normandy landings, the U.S. and German troops fought fiercely in Cherbourg. Eighty percent of the entire urban area of Cherbourg was destroyed. The port was also mined by the Germans, and there were sunken ships blocking the waterway at the entrance.
After the battle of Cherbourg, the Allied leaders ordered the dredging of the port of Cherbourg, hoping to supply the Allied troops landing in France through Cherbourg.
This work was not going smoothly and was not basically completed until November last year. By that time, the Allied forces had already advanced into Belgium, and Cherbourg lost its supply value and was reluctantly abandoned by the Allied forces.
Of course, the work of the Allied forces was not worthless. At least after the Allied forces withdrew, France was left with Cherbourg, which had basically restored its port functions, saving the French provisional government a lot of trouble.
The reconstruction work of Cherbourg has begun last winter. About 300,000 Axis prisoners of war participated in the reconstruction work of Cherbourg.
Cherbourg was a military fortress before the outbreak of the war. The German army built a solid cement defense line in Cherbourg and dozens of forts around Cherbourg.
These forts and bunkers had been completely destroyed by US artillery during the battle. During the subsequent reconstruction process, the work of clearing the ruins accounted for most of the reconstruction.
After the reconstruction, the military attributes of Cherbourg have been significantly reduced. Only the largest one on the southwest side of the dozens of forts has been retained and is to be transformed into a war museum. The others have been demolished and will be planned as residential areas in the future.
The defense line built by the German army was not wasted. The designers built a ring road based on the defense line. Residential areas were built along both sides of the ring road. The inner ring is the commercial district and port area. Due to time constraints, the reconstruction work is still limited.
In progress.
The engineering sector in Southern Africa uses a large number of construction machinery during the construction process.
What surprised Leonard was that many construction machinery were produced by Rhodesia Heavy Industries and Nyasaland Military Industries, two well-known military industrial companies that produced a large amount of heavy equipment, including tanks, for the Allies during the war.
.
Leonard has known about the military-to-civilian transformation in Southern Africa for a long time, and the companies under his name have also undergone similar transformations. It seems that the transformation of military-industrial enterprises in Southern Africa is progressing faster.
Converting the military to civilians is easy to say, but it is still very complicated to do. The most direct part is to give up existing orders, which requires a lot of determination.
The reason why the military-to-civilian conversion of enterprises under Leonard's name did not go smoothly has a lot to do with the decisiveness of enterprises in southern Africa.
When Rock decided to convert the military to civilians, the Allies' demand for weapons and equipment was still very strong. At this time, the military industrial companies in southern Africa were shrinking orders, and some of the orders would definitely be transferred to other countries.
The companies under Leonard's name are the beneficiaries of the order transfer.
American companies with greater profits.
The greater the return, the greater the risk.
With the investment of heavy machinery, the speed of reconstruction has been greatly accelerated. Even during the coldest period of last winter, the reconstruction work did not stop.
Now along both sides of the ring road, clearly defined residential areas have begun to take shape. There are still large areas of reserved open space between communities. Parks and green spaces will be built in the future to improve the living environment of residents. Although the design of the houses is still very
It's simple and the prototype is already there.
More than half of the city's residents are retired members of the Free French Army.
The other half were members of the underground resistance during the German occupation.
Leonard is definitely not unfamiliar with this situation, because he made this decision.
When de Gaulle was recruiting troops in North Africa, he promised that after the war, members of the Free French Army would be given real French treatment.
Those North Africans who joined the Free French Army had very unanimous demands. They were not planning to return to North Africa after the war and hoped to settle in France. In this way, even if the French government goes against its promise in the future, they will have already received tangible benefits.
Before the war, Reynard really could not find a place to place millions of members of the Free French Army.
Settling is only the first step, and the next step is to provide them with jobs so that they will not become a factor of instability in France.
Fortunately, in a new city like Cherbourg, the most important thing is job opportunities.
"What I'm most worried about now is that when those who fled abroad before the war return, there will be conflicts between them." Social Minister Tony Field, who accompanied Leonard to Cherbourg, was very worried about his future.
In France, not only is the prime minister a high-risk profession, but the positions of ministers are also unstable.
As the saying goes, one emperor has one minister, and the resignation of a prime minister is always accompanied by the unemployment of a large number of ministers. On the contrary, the jobs of middle and low-level government employees are more stable.
Because no matter who is the minister, someone has to do errands.
"Those who fled abroad before the war had better never come back." Leonard was ruthless, and it would be best if such people died.
Exile abroad also depends on the situation.
Those like de Gaulle and Reynard who fled to North Africa to continue fighting should be eligible to enjoy France's war dividends.
As for those who packed up their belongings and fled with their families overnight when France was facing war, Leonard hoped that they would stay abroad forever, and France would not welcome such people back.
This is also the attitude of the current French provisional government.
Think about it, even Renault, which cooperated with the German army during the war, the provisional government insisted on nationalizing it, not to mention others.
"In that case, our parliament can be dissolved -" Tony Field smiled bitterly, if only this matter could be solved so easily.
As the saying goes, when a war breaks out, only the rich are qualified to run away. The poor don't even have the capital to run away, so they can only flee.
The French Parliament is the center of power in France. The members know the best about the process of the war and the situation of the country. At the same time, they also have the capital to escape. Even Leonard sent his family to the hospital before the war broke out.
Southern Africa, and so does everyone else.
Of course, Leonard's situation is different from others. Although he sent his family away, he still stayed in North Africa and continued to fight the Germans. This is quite rare for a rich man of Leonard's level.
"Sometimes I really feel sad that the great France is actually managed by such a group of people." Leonard had great opinions on the Parliament.
The key is because the current Speaker is Felix Guin.
The relationship between the Parliament under the leadership of Felix Guin and Leonard can be imagined.
As Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, the first plan put forward by Leonard after regaining Paris was to resettle veterans.
The plan was then submitted to parliament, where it was rejected outright.
Even the loans Leonard obtained from southern Africa to revive the economy are still parked in Rand Bank's account.
This thing sounds very strange, right? The interim government is about to go bankrupt, and the loan that has been obtained with so much hard work has not been spent yet, but is parked in the bank account. This is a bit strange no matter how you look at it.
Actually it's not surprising.
Leonard has already made arrangements for this money. Whether it is used to resettle veterans, or to restore the economy, or to invest in construction, or to provide relief to low-income groups, in short, there are many places to spend money.
There is never enough money to spend.
The interim government costs money and requires parliamentary approval.
So the problem arises.
The interim government needs to spend too much money. Let alone a mere 100 million rand, another billion or even 10 billion will not be enough.
After the first version of the plan submitted by Leonard was rejected, the second version of the plan was quickly submitted.
This time Leonard is no longer focusing on housing veterans, but on restoring the economy.
Well, veterans are all cannon fodder, and the superior congressmen don't care whether they live or die.
Restoring the economy is related to everyone's life. When France's economy recovers, the people who benefit the most are the congressmen. There must be no reason for the congressmen to veto this time.
The result was beyond Leonard's expectation, and the second version of the plan was still rejected.
When things got to this point, Leonard completely woke up.
It's not that the Congressmen are insensitive, or that there's not enough money.
It's because it was Leonard who proposed the plan.
Leonard believed that if the plan was proposed not by the provisional government but by Felix Guin, then it would definitely be passed with a high vote.
