There is an open contradiction between parliament and the president
There are only two ways to retain power: either legally or by force. Louis Bonaparte first tried to follow an "upright" path of guaranteeing rights. Under the activities of the Bonapartes, on May 31, 1851, Broy, a former elder who advocated reconciling the contradictions of the various factions, submitted to the parliament a draft amendment to the constitution extending the presidency to 10 years.
Broy
In response to this action, Louis Bonaparte delivered a speech in Dijon on June 1, in which he said: "Petitions from all over France have expressed their demand for the amendment of the Constitution"; "In my hands, France will not suffer." On July 19, Parliament voted on the draft amendment, but due to the opposition vote of the Republican and Thiers and other Order parties, the draft amendment failed to receive more than 3/4 of the votes in favor. The constitutional revision campaign failed, and Louis Bonaparte's road to legal protection came to an end.
After the fruitless constitutional amendments, the conflict between the president and parliament has become completely open, and few people believe that the problem can be resolved peacefully. One of the central topics of conversation, both in politics and in the city, is the "coup." At the time, both parliament and the president could stage a coup, and the key question was who did it first.
Female writer George Sand
Although a coup is widely believed to be inevitable, when it does happen, it can feel sudden. For example, on December 1, 1851, Arago, who was active in politics in the early years of the Republic, said at lunch with the female writer George Sand: "If the president does not make a coup d'état immediately, he will not be able to do it, because there is no easier success than at the present moment." Late that night, George Sand, returning from a play, passed by the presidential palace and saw that it was as silent as usual, so she asserted: "There will be no accident tomorrow." ”
Louis Bonaparte staged a coup d'état
Louis Bonaparte's coup d'état was scheduled on December 2, 1851, when George Sand thought "nothing would happen", the double anniversary of Napoleon's coronation and the Battle of Austerlitz. In fact, preparations for the coup d'état had long been carried out in secret.
Battle of Austerlitz
On 26 November, generals of the army loyal to the President and most ministers secretly discussed and formulated a course of action. At 6 a.m. on December 2, a notice was plastered throughout Paris, the main contents of which were: dissolve the Legislative Assembly, restore universal suffrage, and let the people vote on whether to give the incumbent president more permanent powers and the power to amend the constitution.
At the same time, the army moved separately and arrested 78 sleeping opposition figures, including Shanganière, Kafenjak and Thiers, according to a pre-drawn list. Thiers' performance is very indicative of his own political style. In the face of the armed men, he first panicked, declaring that "I never want to die" and that he would be willing to go into exile if it was feasible.
Kafenjac
Then he calmed down again and said, "Do you know the law? Do you know that you are breaking the Constitution? When he had to follow the captors, he said to his wife, "It's okay, it's the police chief who asked me to go..." On the way to prison, Thiers suddenly realized: "You are going to shoot me." I see you are going to send me to death. He then promised money and official positions to the escorts, begging them to let him go. However, Thiers ended up in prison.
While his cronies were posting posters in Paris announcing the arrest of political opponents, Louis Bonaparte was sitting in the Elysee Palace drinking coffee with great composure, waiting for the reaction of the Parisian people to the coup. On the day of the incident, the workers in Paris showed extraordinary calm after seeing the notice, they saw the restoration of universal suffrage and the continuation of the republic, and in their eyes, the president's actions were just a serious "joke" against the right.
Elysee Palace
However, some MPs of the Party of Order rallied in protest, and dozens of Republicans, including Hugo, even called for an uprising. At the instigation of the republicans, workers in Paris took to the streets on 3 and 4 December, and after the loss of hundreds of lives, the situation calmed down. A similar situation has occurred in the provinces, but on a relatively small scale. After taking the situation under control, Louis Bonaparte began a nationwide mass arrest, and by January 1852, the number of arrests was about 27,000.
Call for an uprising
After the successful coup, the shell of the republic existed, but Louis Bonaparte's personal dictatorship was established de facto. On December 20-21, 1851, the French people voted on whether to extend the presidency and give it the power to write a new constitution, and Louis Bonaparte received an absolute majority of 7.5 million votes to 640,000.
The ephemeral era of the presidential system is over
On January 15, 1852, a new constitution was promulgated, which stipulated that the president's term of office was changed from the original 4 years to 10 years, and that the president had the right to designate the next successor. The French monarchy tends to be more intense. The president, when signing, has deliberately removed his surname "Bonaparte" and only wrote "Louis Napoleon" (historically only monarchs were qualified to do this).
Louis Napoleon
The president's annual salary suddenly rose to 12 million francs, and the days when parliament was at loggerheads with the president on this issue are gone. The eagle micro-eagle flag, a symbol of the empire, began to be displayed everywhere, and the president's head began to appear on currency and postage stamps. At the same time, slogans such as "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", an important symbol of republicanism, were erased from the walls.
For Louis Bonaparte, who already had full dominionship, restoring the imperial system was no longer difficult, but he seemed to hesitate for a while, and he once confessed: "Let us maintain the republic; It does not threaten anyone, it reassures everyone. However, the president of the Bonaparte family, who was everywhere following the example of his uncle Napoleon (although not very much like or even very similar), could not resist the temptation of imperialism.
Napoleon
From September 1852, the process of restoring the imperial system began to accelerate. On the one hand, he created in various ways a century-old upsurge in which the people of the whole country yearned for the president to become emperor. On the other hand, he tried to "cut off" the relationship between the establishment of empires and foreign wars, because in many people's memory, the Napoleonic Empire was inseparable from war.
In October 1852, he delivered a manifesto-style speech in Bordeaux, in which he stated: "Out of suspicion, some people think that empire is war. And I will say, empire is peace"; "We have vast wastelands to develop, roads to be opened, ports to be dredged, rivers to be navigable, canals to be completed, our rail network to be complete"; "That's the conquest I'm going to make."
Louis Bonaparte
On November 21, 1852, Louis Bonaparte, who was most confident in the referendum, put the question of whether to restore the imperial system to a popular vote, with 7.824 million votes in favor, 253,000 against, and about 2 million abstentions. On December 2, 1852, again on this symbolic day, Louis Bonaparte proclaimed himself emperor at the Palazzo de Santa Cru.
According to the "order", the new emperor was called Napoleon III, and the empire he founded was called the Second Empire. Napoleon III was 44 years old at this time, and despite the constant smell of flowers around him, he was still legally a bachelor without a direct heir.