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Camille Chautemps | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Chautempsc. 1930 | |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 22 June 1937 – 13 March 1938 | |
| President | Albert Lebrun |
| Preceded by | Léon Blum |
| Succeeded by | Léon Blum |
| In office 26 November 1933 – 30 January 1934 | |
| President | Albert Lebrun |
| Preceded by | Albert Sarraut |
| Succeeded by | Édouard Daladier |
| In office 21 February 1930 – 2 March 1930 | |
| President | Gaston Doumergue |
| Preceded by | André Tardieu |
| Succeeded by | André Tardieu |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 February 1885 |
| Died | 1 July 1963(1963-07-01) (aged 78) |
| Political party | Radical |
Camille Chautemps (French:[kamijʃotɑ̃]; 1 February 1885 – 1 July 1963) was a FrenchRadical politician of theThird Republic, three timesPresident of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister).
He was the father-in-law of U.S. politician and statesmanHoward J. Samuels.
Born into a family of Radical politicians, Camille Chautemps was a lawyer by training and a noted amateur rugby-player in his youth, playing for Tours Rugby andStade Français. He was inducted into theGrand Orient of France (1906, master 1908),[1] quitting theFreemasons in August 1940 as anti-masonic regulation was adopted by Pétain.
He entered local politics in the fiefdom of his parliamentarian uncle, Alphonse Chautemps, and followed a political career path typical of many Radical-Socialists: first elected town councillor for Tours (1912), then mayor (1919–25), parliamentary deputy (1919–34) and senator (1934–40). Chautemps was considered one of the chief figures of the 'right' (anti-socialist and pro-liberal) wing of the centre-leftRadical-Socialist Party. Between 1924 and 1926, he served in the centre-leftcoalition governments ofÉdouard Herriot,Paul Painlevé andAristide Briand.
Renowned as a skilful negotiator with friends from across the party divide, he was called upon on several occasions to attempt to build support for a coalition of the centre-left. He first became President of the Council for a short-lived government in 1930. After the electoral victory of the left in 1934, he served asInterior Minister and became head of government once more in November 1933. The revelations of theStavisky Affair, a corruption scandal, tarnished two of his ministers, sparking violent protests by thefar-right leagues. He resigned his posts on 27 January 1934, when the opposition press attributed Stavisky's suicide to a government cover-up.[2]
InLéon Blum'sPopular Front government of 1936, Chautemps represented the Radical-Socialist Party as aMinister of State and succeeded Blum at the head of the government from June 1937 to March 1938. The franc was devalued, but government finances remained in difficulty.[3] Pursuing the program of the Popular Front, he proceeded in thenationalisation of the railroads to create theSNCF. However, in January 1938, he formed a new government consisting solely of ministers from the nonsocialistrepublican centre- left.[4] His government fell on 10 March.[5]
Chautemps subsequently served from April 1938 to May 1940 asDeputy Prime Minister in the governments ofÉdouard Daladier andPaul Reynaud. After the latter resigned, as he was again deputy prime minister, now to MarshalPhilippe Pétain.
France declared war on Germany in September 1939, and in May 1940, the German Army invaded and swept aside all opposition. With the fall of Dunkirk on 5 June and the defeat of the French Army imminent, Chautemps, dined withPaul Baudouin on the 8th, and declared that the war must be ended and that Pétain saw his position most clearly.[6] On the 11th, during a Cabinet meeting, Chautemps suggested for Churchill to be invited back to France to discuss the hopeless situation; he attended a conference at Tours on 13 June.[7] The Cabinet met again on the 15th and was almost evenly split on the question of an armistice with Germany. Chautemps now suggested that to break the deadlock, that they should get a neutral authority to enquire what the German terms would be, which if honourable, the Cabinet could agree to study. If not, the Cabinet would agree to fight on. The Chautemps proposal passed by 13 to 6.[8]
On 16 June,Charles de Gaulle, now in London, telephoned Reynaud to give him the British government's offer of joint nationality for French and British in a Franco-British union. A delighted Reynaud put it to a stormy Cabinet meeting and was supported by five of his ministers. Most of the others were persuaded against him by the arguments of Pétain, Chautemps andJean Ybarnégaray, the last two seeing the offer as a device to make France subservient to Britain as an extra dominion.Georges Mandel, who had a Jewish background,[9] was flinging accusations of cowardice around the room, and Chautemps and others replied in kind. Reynaud clearly would not accept Chautemps's proposal and later resigned.[10]
On 10 July 1940, Chautemps voted as a Senator in favour of granting the cabinet presided by MarshalPhilippe Pétain authority to draw up a new constitution, thereby effectively ending theFrench Third Republic and establishingVichy France. However, Chautemps broke with Pétain's government after he had arrived in the United States on an official mission and lived there for much of the rest of his life. AfterWorld War II, a French court convicted himin absentia for collaborating with the enemy;[11] he was amnestied in 1954.
After his death inWashington, DC, he was laid to rest in theRock Creek Cemetery.
Changes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Justice 1925 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1930 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1933–1934 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1937–1938 | Succeeded by |
