Responding to the chaotic situation at Renault, a 27 September 1944 meeting of the Council of Ministers (fr) took place under de Gaulle's presidency. Postwar European politics had quickly become polarised between communists and anti-communists, and in France de Gaulle was keen to resist Communist Party attempts to monopolise the political dividends available to resistance heroes: politically Billancourt was a communist stronghold. The government decided to "requisition" the Renault factories. A week later, on 4 October, Pierre Lefaucheux, a resistance leader with a background in engineering and top-level management, was appointed provisional administrator of the firm, assuming his responsibilities at once.