Pierre Mendès France | |
|---|---|
 Mendès France in 1948 | |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 18 June 1954 – 23 February 1955 | |
| President | René Coty |
| Preceded by | Joseph Laniel |
| Succeeded by | Edgar Faure |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 18 June 1954 – 20 January 1955 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Georges Bidault |
| Succeeded by | Edgar Faure |
| Mayor ofLouviers | |
| In office 13 March 1953 – 27 November 1958 | |
| Preceded by | Marcel Malherbe |
| Succeeded by | André Vincelot |
| In office 17 May 1935 – 20 September 1939 | |
| Preceded by | Raoul Thorel |
| Succeeded by | Auguste Fromentin |
| President of the General Council ofEure | |
| In office 6 October 1945 – 6 December 1958 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Gustave Héon |
| Minister of National Economics | |
| In office 4 September 1944 – 6 April 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles de Gaulle |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | René Pleven |
| Commissioner for Finances | |
| In office 3 November 1943 – 4 September 1944 | |
| President | Charles de Gaulle |
| Preceded by | Maurice Couve de Murville |
| Succeeded by | Aimé Lepercq |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France (1907-01-11)11 January 1907 Paris, France |
| Died | 18 October 1982(1982-10-18) (aged 75) Paris, France |
| Political party | Radical (1924–1959) Autonomous Socialist (1959–1960) Unified Socialist (1960–1971) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France (French:[pjɛʁmɑ̃dɛsfʁɑ̃s]; 11 January 1907 – 18 October 1982) was a French politician who served asprime minister of France for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of theRadical Party, he headed a government supported by a coalition of Gaullists (RPF), moderate socialists (UDSR), Christian democrats (MRP) and liberal-conservatives (CNIP). Pierre-Mendès France is primarily remembered as the French Prime Minister who was in office at the outbreak of the Algerian independence war in 1954. During his tenure, France initiated close military cooperation withIsrael, selling arms and aircraft to the young state. Mendès-France laid the groundwork for France’s military nuclear program and the early transfer of nuclear technology to Israel.
Mendès France was born on 11 January 1907 in Paris, the son of a textile merchant fromLimoges.[1] He was descended fromPortuguese Jews who settled in France in the 16th century.[1] He studied at theÉcole des sciences politiques and theFaculty of Law of Paris, graduating with a doctorate in law and becoming the youngest member of the Parisbar association in 1926, at age 19.[1] In 1924, Mendès France joined theRadical Party, the traditional party of the French middle-class centre-left (not to be confused with the mainstreamSFIO, often called the Socialist Party). He married Lili Cicurel, the niece ofSalvator Cicurel.[2]
In 1932, Mendès France was elected member of theChamber of Deputies for theEure department; he was the Assembly's youngest member.[1] In1936 he came within 700 votes of losing toModeste Legouez, the president of the radical agrarian group theComités de défense paysanne in what he said was his hardest electoral fight.[3] His ability was soon recognized, and in 1938 the government ofLéon Blum appointed him Under Secretary of State for Finance.[1]
In October 1940, France was put on trial by theVichy regime at thecourthouse in Clermont-Ferrand for desertion after he boarded the linerSSMassilia forCasablanca in Morocco to continue the fight against the Nazis.[4][5] He was imprisoned for desertion.[1] He escaped and succeeded in reaching Britain, where he joined theFree French forces led byCharles de Gaulle. Mendès France later described his trial, conviction and subsequent escape in the celebrated documentary "The Sorrow and the Pity".[1]
During the latter years of the war, Mendès France served in theFree French Air Forces and flew in a dozen bombing raids.[1] After theLiberation of Paris in August 1944, he was appointedMinister for National Economy in theFrench provisional government by de Gaulle.[1] He later headed the French delegation to the 1944United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference atBretton Woods.[1]
Mendès France soon fell out with the Finance Minister,René Pleven.[1] Mendès France supportedstate regulation of wages and prices to control inflation, while Pleven favoured generallylaissez-faire policies.[1] When de Gaulle sided with Pleven, Mendès France resigned.[1] Nonetheless, de Gaulle valued Mendès France's abilities, and appointed him as a director of theInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and as French representative to theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council.
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In 1947, after democratic French politics resumed under theFourth Republic, Mendès France was re-elected to the National Assembly. He first tried to form a government in June 1953, but was unable to gain the numbers in the Assembly. From 1950 he had been a consistent opponent ofFrench colonialism, and by 1954 France was becoming hopelessly embroiled in major colonial conflicts: theFirst Indochina War and theAlgerian War of Independence. When French forces were defeated by theVietnamese Communists atDien Bien Phu in June 1954, the government ofJoseph Laniel resigned, and Mendès France formed a government with support from the centre-right.
Mendès France immediately negotiated an agreement withHo Chi Minh, the Vietnamese Communist leader. There was, he said, no choice but total withdrawal fromIndochina, and the Assembly supported him by 471 votes to 14. Nevertheless, nationalist opinion was shocked, and Roman Catholic opinion opposed abandoning the Vietnamese believers to Communism. A tirade of abuse, much of itanti-Semitic, was directed at Mendès France.Jean-Marie Le Pen, then aPoujadist member of the Assembly, described his "patriotic, almost physical repulsion" for Mendès France.
At the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence in 1954, Pierre Mendès France firmly reaffirmed that Algeria was an integral part of France and rejected any notion of negotiation with nationalist movements. He declared to the French parliament :"There can be no compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation, its unity, and the integrity of the Republic. The departments of Algeria are an integral part of the French Republic [...] The idea of secession is unthinkable".[6]
Later, Mendès France next came to an agreement withHabib Bourguiba, the nationalist leader inTunisia, for the independence of that colony by 1956, and began discussions with the nationalist leaders inMorocco for a French withdrawal. He also favoured concessions to the nationalists inAlgeria; but the presence of a millionPied-noirs there left the colonial power no easy way to extricate itself from that situation. The futuremercenaryBob Denard was convicted in 1954 and sentenced to fourteen months in prison for an assassination attempt against Mendès France.[7]
Mendès France hoped that the Radical Party would become the party of modernization and renewal in French politics, replacing the SFIO. An advocate of greaterEuropean integration, he helped bring about the formation of theWestern European Union, and proposed far-reaching economic reform. He also favoured defence co-operation with other European countries, but the National Assembly rejected the proposal for aEuropean Defence Community, mainly because of misgivings about Germany's participation.
His cabinet fell in February 1955. In 1956 he served as Minister of State in the cabinet headed by the SFIO leaderGuy Mollet, but resigned over Mollet's handling of the Algerian War,[1] which was coming to dominate French politics. His split over Algeria withEdgar Faure, leader of the conservative wing of the Radical Party, led to Mendès France resigning as party leader in 1957.
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Like most of the French left, Mendès France opposed de Gaulle's seizure of power inMay 1958, when the mounting crisis in Algeria brought about a breakdown in the Fourth Republic system and the creation of aFifth Republic.[1] He led theUnion of Democratic Forces, an anti-Gaullist group, but in the November 1958 elections he lost his seat in the Assembly. After being expelled from the Radical Party, whose majority faction supported de Gaulle, in late 1959 he joined theAutonomous Socialist Party (PSA), a breakaway group from the SFIO.[1]
In April 1960, the PSA merged with several other groups to form theUnified Socialist Party (PSU).[1] He made an unsuccessful bid to regain his seat in the National Assembly representingEure in the 1962 election.[8]
In 1967 he returned to the Assembly as a PSU member for theIsère, but again lost his seat in the 1968 landslide election victory of the Gaullist partyUDR. Mendès France and the PSU expressed sympathy for the sentiments and actions of the student rioters during theevents of May 1968,[1] a position unusual for a politician of his age and status. One year later, Pompidou's socialist opponent in thepresidential election of 1969,Gaston Defferre of the SFIO, designated him his preferred Prime Minister prior to the election. The two campaigned together in what was the first – and so far only – dual "ticket" in a French presidential election. Defferre gained only 5% of the vote and was eliminated in the election's first round. WhenFrançois Mitterrand formed a newSocialist Party in 1971, Mendès France supported him, but did not attempt another political comeback. He lived long enough to see Mitterrand elected president.
National Assembly of France
General Council
Municipal council
Changes
Belgium: Grand Officer of theOrder of Leopold (Belgium)
Morocco: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Ouissam Alaouite
Monaco: Gran Cross of theOrder of Saint-Charles
Tunisia: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Glory (Tunisia)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Free French Commissioner for Finance 1943–1944 | Succeeded by – |
| Preceded by | Minister of National Economy 1944–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1954–1955 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1954–1955 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by — | Minister of State 1956 | Succeeded by — |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
