Government in exile

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A government-in-exile is the government of a country that claims and performs the highest functions of a state outside its national territory because it is prevented from exercising them on its own territory. Obstacles can be that the national territory is occupied by another power or is controlled by another government that is regarded as illegitimate.

There are no principles of international law for the recognition of a government in exile by other states or the community of states . In exercising its government functions, it is dependent on the help of the state of residence and other allied states. By remaining or becoming the point of contact for other states, it gains the character of a legal personality . Explicit recognition is not required where there is legal continuity, such as in the case of a legal government that has fled .

Governments in exile often lack democratic legitimacy. Since free elections are usually not expected in an occupied country, the people cannot influence their government-in-exile.

Second World War

During the Second World War there were governments in exile mainly in Great Britain , where the Polish government in exile and the governments in exile of France , Belgium , Yugoslavia , the Netherlands , Norway and Czechoslovakia were in office and attempted to influence the policies of the Allies in the fight against the Nazi German Reich .

After the Second World War

Greece

There has been a Greek - Epirotic government in exile in Albania since 1999 .

Poland

Władysław Raczkiewicz was constitutionally appointed as his successor by the President of the Republic of Poland Ignacy Mościcki , who fled abroad with his government in September 1939. Legal continuity was thus preserved. Raczkiewicz formed a government in exile in Paris under General Sikorski . This Polish government-in-exile remained in office even after the end of World War II because the People's Republic of Poland had fallen into Soviet hegemony . The other heads of government of the government-in-exile were selected from a small group of exiles in Great Britain .

Spain

A Spanish government-in-exile, which invoked the Second Spanish Republic , which perished in the Spanish Civil War , and regarded Francisco Franco's government as illegitimate, had its seat in Mexico from 1939 to 1977 . Another government in exile in Spain was based in France .

Further

Web links

Wiktionary: government in exile  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Birgit Aschmann : "Treue Freunde ...?" West Germany and Spain 1945–1963 , Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, p. 60 ( online ).