Under the continuous show of weakness by Jerome Bonaparte, Thiers finally let go of his wariness towards him.
In Thiers’ view, as long as he satisfied this clumsy imitator’s desire for money, he would be forced to obey him.
He was even afraid to face off with Cafenak regarding a proposal yet to be implemented, so how could he possibly contend with the Order Party?
In the subsequent conversation, Thiers hinted to Jerome Bonaparte that he and the Order Party would definitely support him.
After Jerome Bonaparte left with joy, Thiers once again gathered the other members of the Order Party: Audion Barrot and Count Morel.
Thiers related the entire conversation with Jerome Bonaparte that day to them.
"Mr. Bonaparte is obviously much easier to control than Mr. Dictator. Our Mr. Dictator is eager to bite back at us after the election; it seems he has forgotten who put him up there in the first place!" Thiers’ voice was full of vigor, carrying a hint of anger.
"Cafenak has indeed gone too far! I heard he’s still trying to rally support among the senior generals in the army, and that guy Changarnier is about to be won over by him!" Audion Barrot, a leader of the Dynasty’s Left Wing and a titan of the Order Party, frowned slightly.
"Some people, once they become dictators, don’t know their own weight!" Count Morel’s tone was also somewhat angry. Cafenak’s series of recent actions had obviously enraged them. He turned his eyes to Audion Barrot, "Mr. Barrot, could you please visit General Shang Jia’nie and remind him not to forget which side he’s on!"
"I understand!" Audion Barrot nodded and got up to go to Shang Jia’nie’s residence.
After Audion Barrot left, Count Morel turned his gaze to Thiers, "Mr. Thiers, since you believe that Jerome Bonaparte is easier to control than Cafenak, then go ahead! As one of the founders of the Order Party, it’s your right!"
With that said, Count Morel also left Thiers’ residence.
With the unanimous agreement of Thiers, Molay, and Audion Barrot, the three giants of the Order Party decided to push Jerome Bonaparte into the presidency as a puppet.
In the decades following the event, every time Thiers recalled that afternoon, he couldn’t help but want to slap himself twice.
On October 17, Changarnier’s estrangement made Cafenak realize that he might no longer rely on the military. Unwilling, Cafenak once again submitted a proposal to the National Assembly on restricting voters’ property, which was rejected by the National Assembly with 50 votes in favor and 700 against.
This was Cafenak’s last proposal in the assembly. From then on, he never appeared in the National Assembly until the inauguration ceremony of the new president.
On this day, Jerome Bonaparte entered the National Assembly for the first time as a member.
Upholding the principle of saying less to make fewer mistakes.
From the moment Jerome Bonaparte entered the National Assembly, he had already decided to play the role of an invisible person until the election results were completely settled.
To this end, he deliberately chose a remote corner far from the podium to silently participate in each National Assembly meeting.
After each National Assembly meeting ended, Jerome Bonaparte always gathered the Bonaparte Party Members together, asking them to report on work progress.
Ever since Cafenak threatened the upstream and downstream industries of the "Bonaparte Newspaper" under Jerome Bonaparte’s control, the newspaper had changed from a daily to a weekly publication. The content had become much richer, and the price of five centimes per issue had also attracted quite a few subscribers, though the paper was still in a state of sustainable loss.
On the Letty front, due to the Bonaparte Party Members running night and day across every corner of Paris, the slogan "Make France Great Again" had spread all over Paris, boosting Jerome Bonaparte’s fame once more. Of course, his rising fame also brought some negative impressions.
The "National Newspaper" once mocked Jerome Bonaparte as a "Paper-strip President" for the Bonaparte Faction’s behavior of posting promotional slogans on the streets.
The angry Percy and others wanted to engage in a "debate" with those people from the "National Newspaper" through their paper but were stopped by Jerome Bonaparte.
Jerome Bonaparte gleefully looked at the striking term "Paper-strip President" on the front page of the "National Newspaper" and jokingly said, "Since our colleagues at the ’National Newspaper’ are willing to advertise for me at their own expense, why don’t we go along with it! A Paper-strip President, it still needs to be down-to-earth!"
"But..." Percy was somewhat unwilling.
"Relax! They won’t hop around for long!" Jerome Bonaparte patted Percy’s shoulder, "Soon, it will be our turn!"
On November 7, the French Republic’s constitution was finally issued amid Cafenak’s deliberate delays.
The constitution stipulated that the President of the French Republic, as the military Commander-in-Chief, enjoyed supreme military power, diplomatic authority, and the right to draft laws, while also possessing the right to dismiss the Cabinet without the consent of the National Assembly... The term of such an emperor-like president’s powers was only four years. To limit this privilege, the constitution specifically stipulated that as the highest military commander, the president could not directly command the army or dissolve the National Assembly. If any president attempted to dissolve the National Assembly, they would be considered guilty of treason, and the National Assembly held supreme judicial authority.
After the constitution was issued, the next step was the final voting segment.
Despite France being in the middle of winter, the weather this year was exceptionally good.
Around 7.5 million voters participated in the voting, with over 76% of eligible voters casting their ballots.
Although the number of voters was less than in April, these individuals were enough to carry Jerome Bonaparte into the Elysee Palace.
After over a month of voting and counting, the province-by-province voting outcomes were aggregated in Paris on December 8.
Paris took an additional two days to conduct another recount of the provincial vote tallies and announced the results on a small scale on December 10.
With an overwhelming majority of 5.9 million votes, Jerome Bonaparte unsurprisingly became the first president of the French Republic, and all that remained was to await the presidential inauguration.
This figure exceeded his historical cousin by 400,000 votes, sourced in part from Parisians and another part from the Orthodox faction’s traditional stronghold in the Rhône River Province.
Unfortunate Cafenak secured barely 1.1 million votes.
Lederer Roland received 370,000 votes, Raspail got 37,000 votes, and Lamartine only gathered 17,000.
The long four-month presidential contest had finally come to an end.