Word: peyrouton
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Ambassador Abetz had other demands to make. He wanted Laval's man, Fernand de Brinon, made emissary between Vichy and the German authorities in Paris. This Marshal Pétain agreed to. He wanted Minister of the Interior Marcel B. Peyrouton's Groupe de Protection dissolved. This the Marshal also agreed to, although the GP was his own bodyguard. But when Ambassador Abetz demanded reorganization of the Cabinet, the ousting of Peyrouton and Minister of Justice Raphael Alibert, credited with heading the Pétain brain trust, Pétain asked for time...
...Marshal balked, demanded to know by what authority his Vice Premier had arranged for him to leave unoccupied France. Laval replied that his portfolio of Foreign Affairs gave him authority to deal with Germany, insisted that Petain make the trip. Minister of the Interior Marcel B. Peyrouton, who recently created a Groupe de Protection for the Marshal after the pattern of Hitler's Elite Guard, asked for a specific guarantee of Pétain's liberty after he arrived in occupied France...
Laval lost his temper. He upbraided the Marshal for his stubbornness and Peyrouton for his suspicion. He demanded that in the future his powers be precisely defined, that he be given executive authority, with Pétain as a figurehead. Then he stalked from the meeting...
Other members of the Cabinet remained. After a while they, too, departed. Members of Peyrouton's GP, wearing leather helmets and arm bands, appeared in the streets of Vichy. One hundred soldiers of the French Army surrounded the Hotel du Pare, where Laval was staying. Then three officers of the Surete Nationale entered the hotel. When they emerged, Pierre Laval was with them. He was placed in Marcel Peyrouton's own automobile and driven nobody would say where...
When the Cabinet was reformed, not only Pierre Laval, but also Minister of Public Instruction Georges Ripert was absent. Laval's powers over press, radio and cinema went by decree to Under Secretary Paul Baudouin. Minister of the Interior Marcel Peyrouton, who is also Chief of Police, emerged as the strong man of the weak men of France. Premier Pétain announced his intention of creating a Consultative Assembly to be composed of delegates from the provinces...