Kauffman Ministry

Léon Kauffman, a member of the Party of the Right, was able to form a coalition government with the liberals on 19 June 1917.

[1] In November 1917, the Chamber of Deputies began debating the introduction of universal suffrage.

[1] There was particularly drawn-out discussion on articles 32 (origin of sovereign power), 37 (conclusion of secret treaties), 52 (universal suffrage, women's right to vote, proportional representation) and 75 (Deputies' salaries) of the Constitution.

[1] The government was unwilling (as the Chamber wanted) to risk offending the Grand Duchess by defining sovereignty as residing in the nation, rather than in the monarch.

[1] The government also became discredited by its relations with the German occupiers -- it became known that on 16 August, the prime minister had been present at a private visit by the German chancellor Georg von Hertling to the Grand Duchess.