Laval returned to power in April 1942.
In a radio speech he gave on 22 June 1942 he outlined his policy objectives, expressing his "desire to re-establish normal and trusting relations with Germany and Italy".
He added he "wished for a German victory" because otherwise "Bolshevism [would] establish itself everywhere."
Laval had been in power for a mere two months when he was faced with the decision of providing forced workers to Germany.
The Reich was short of skilled labour due to its need for troop replacements on the Russian front.
Unlike other occupied countries, France was technically protected by the armistice, and its workers could not be simply rounded up for transportation.
In the occupied zone the Germans used intimidation and control of raw materials to create unemployment, thus creating reasons for French labourers to volunteer to work in Germany.
Nazi officials demanded Laval send more than 300,000 skilled workers immediately to factories in Germany.
Laval delayed, making a counter-offer of one worker in return for one French POW.
The proposal was sent to Hitler, and a compromise was reached: one prisoner of war to be repatriated for every three workers arriving in Germany.

Laval's precise role in the deportation of Jews has been hotly debated by both his accusers and defenders.
The Germans never told the Vichy French authorities about the extermination camps; instead the French were told that Jews were being deported as forced labour for the Axis war effort.
When ordered to have all Jews in France rounded up to be transported to German-occupied Poland, Laval negotiated a compromise.
 He allowed only those Jews who were not French citizens to be forfeited to German control.
It was estimated that by the end of the war, the Germans had killed 90 percent of the Jewish population in other occupied countries, but in France fifty per cent of the pre-war French and foreign Jewish population, with perhaps ninety per cent of the purely French Jewish population still remaining alive.
Laval went beyond the orders given to him by the Germans, as he included Jewish children under 16, whom the Germans had given him permission to spare, in the deportations.
In his book Churches and the Holocaust, Mordecai Paldiel claims that when Protestant leader Marc Boegner visited Laval to remonstrate, Laval claimed that he had ordered children to be deported along with their parents because families should not be separated and "children should remain with their parents".
According to Paldiel, when Boegner argued that the children would almost certainly die, Laval replied "not one [Jewish child] must remain in France".
Sarah Fishman (in a reliably sourced book, but lacking citations)  writes that Laval also attempted to prevent Jewish children gaining visas to the United States, arranged by the American Friends Service Committee, and that Laval was committed less to expelling Jewish children from France than to making sure they reached Nazi camps.

More and more the insoluble dilemma of collaboration faced Laval and his chief of staff, Jean Jardin.
Laval had to maintain Vichy's authority to prevent Germany from installing a Quisling Government made up of French Nazis such as Jacques Doriot.
Laval returned to power in April 1942. In a radio speech he gave on 22 June 1942 he outlined his policy objectives, expressing his "desire to re-establish normal and trusting relations with Germany and Italy". He added he "wished for a German victory" because otherwise "Bolshevism [would] establish itself everywhere." Laval had been in power for a mere two months when he was faced with the decision of providing forced workers to Germany. The Reich was short of skilled labour due to its need for troop replacements on the Russian front. Unlike other occupied countries, France was technically protected by the armistice, and its workers could not be simply rounded up for transportation. In the occupied zone the Germans used intimidation and control of raw materials to create unemployment, thus creating reasons for French labourers to volunteer to work in Germany. Nazi officials demanded Laval send more than 300,000 skilled workers immediately to factories in Germany. Laval delayed, making a counter-offer of one worker in return for one French POW. The proposal was sent to Hitler, and a compromise was reached: one prisoner of war to be repatriated for every three workers arriving in Germany.
Laval's precise role in the deportation of Jews has been hotly debated by both his accusers and defenders. The Germans never told the Vichy French authorities about the extermination camps; instead the French were told that Jews were being deported as forced labour for the Axis war effort. When ordered to have all Jews in France rounded up to be transported to German-occupied Poland, Laval negotiated a compromise.  He allowed only those Jews who were not French citizens to be forfeited to German control. It was estimated that by the end of the war, the Germans had killed 90 percent of the Jewish population in other occupied countries, but in France fifty per cent of the pre-war French and foreign Jewish population, with perhaps ninety per cent of the purely French Jewish population still remaining alive. Laval went beyond the orders given to him by the Germans, as he included Jewish children under 16, whom the Germans had given him permission to spare, in the deportations. In his book Churches and the Holocaust, Mordecai Paldiel claims that when Protestant leader Marc Boegner visited Laval to remonstrate, Laval claimed that he had ordered children to be deported along with their parents because families should not be separated and "children should remain with their parents". According to Paldiel, when Boegner argued that the children would almost certainly die, Laval replied "not one [Jewish child] must remain in France". Sarah Fishman (in a reliably sourced book, but lacking citations)  writes that Laval also attempted to prevent Jewish children gaining visas to the United States, arranged by the American Friends Service Committee, and that Laval was committed less to expelling Jewish children from France than to making sure they reached Nazi camps.
More and more the insoluble dilemma of collaboration faced Laval and his chief of staff, Jean Jardin. Laval had to maintain Vichy's authority to prevent Germany from installing a Quisling Government made up of French Nazis such as Jacques Doriot.
Pierre Laval