French Third Republic during the Nazi-Soviet Pact and its opposition to the "imperialist war" against Germany in 1939–40). From a different perspective, Gaullists called the Third Republic a "weak" regime and argued that if France had a regime headed by a strong-man president like Charles de Gaulle before 1940, the defeat could have been avoided. In power, they did exactly that and started the Fifth Republic. Then was a group of French historians, centered around Pierre Renouvin and his "protégés" Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and Maurice Baumont, that started a new type of international history to take into what Renouvin called (profound forces) such as
President of the Senate with Senators ("Senatoren") being the holders of ministerial portfolios. In Danzig the President of the Senate ("Präsident des Senats") was an office equivalent to that of prime minister in other countries. The Senate of France elects a president from among its own number. The President of the French Senate stands first in line of succession in case of death or resignation of the President of the Republic, becoming acting president until a presidential election can be held. This most recently occurred with Alain Poher, who was senate president from 1968 to 1992 and who served as interim president on two