Émile Loubet | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Photograph by Paul Nadar, 1900 | |
| 8thPresident of France | |
| In office 18 February 1899 – 18 February 1906 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles Dupuy Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau Émile Combes Maurice Rouvier |
| Preceded by | Félix Faure |
| Succeeded by | Armand Fallières |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 27 February 1892 – 6 December 1892 | |
| President | Sadi Carnot |
| Preceded by | Charles de Freycinet |
| Succeeded by | Alexandre Ribot |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1838-12-30)30 December 1838 |
| Died | 20 December 1929(1929-12-20) (aged 90) |
| Political party | Democratic Republican Alliance |
| Spouse(s) | ; her death |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Signature |  |
Émile François Loubet (French:[emillubɛ]; 30 December 1838 – 20 December 1929) was the 45thPrime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and laterPresident of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he becamemayor ofMontélimar, where he was noted as a forceful orator. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1876 and the Senate in 1885. He was appointed as a Republican minister under Carnot and Ribot. He was briefly Prime Minister of France in 1892. As President, he saw the successfulParis Exhibition of 1900, and the forging of theEntente Cordiale with theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, resolving their sharp differences over theBoer War and theDreyfus Affair.
Loubet was born on 30 December 1838, the son of a peasant proprietor andmayor ofMarsanne (Drôme). Admitted to the Parisian bar in 1862, he took his doctorate in law the next year. He was still a student when he witnessed the sweeping triumph of theRepublican party in Paris at the general election in 1863, during theSecond French Empire. He settled down to the exercise of his profession inMontélimar, where in 1869 he married Marie-Louise Picard. He also inherited a small estate at Grignan.[1]
American politicianWilliam Jennings Bryan described Loubet as "below the medium height, even for Frenchmen. His shoulders are broad and his frame indicative of great physical strength. His hair is snow white, as are also his beard and mustache. He wears his beard square cut at the chin. . . . His voice is soft, and he speaks with great vivacity, emphasizing his words by expressive gestures."[2]
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At the crisis of 1870, which brought about the Empire's end, he becamemayor of Montélimar, and thenceforward was a steady supporter ofLéon Gambetta. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1876 byMontélimar, he was one of the notable 363 parliamentarians who in the16 May 1877 crisis passed a vote of no confidence in the ministry ofAlbert, the duke of Broglie.[1]
In the general election of October he was re-elected, local enthusiasm for him being increased by the fact that the government had driven him from the mayoralty. In the Chamber he occupied himself especially with education, fighting the clerical system established by theLoi Falloux, and working for the establishment of free, obligatory and secular primary instruction. In 1880 he became president of the departmental council inDrôme. His support of the secondJules Ferry ministry and his zeal for the colonial expansion of France gave him considerable weight in the moderate Republican party.[1]
He had entered theSenate in 1885, and he became minister of public works in theTirard ministry (December 1887 to March 1888). In 1892 PresidentSadi Carnot, who was his personal friend, asked him to form a cabinet. Loubet held the portfolio of the interior with the premiership, and had to deal with the anarchist crimes of that year and with the great strike of Carmaux, in which he acted as arbitrator, giving a decision regarded in many quarters as too favourable to the strikers. He was defeated in November on the question of thePanama scandals, but he retained the ministry of the interior in the next cabinet underAlexandre Ribot, though he resigned on its reconstruction in January.[1]
His reputation as an orator of great force and lucidity of exposition and as a safe and honest statesman procured for him in 1896 the presidency of the Senate, and in February 1899 he was chosen president of the republic in succession toFélix Faure by 483 votes as against 279 recorded byJules Méline, his only serious competitor.[1]
He was marked out for fierce opposition and bitter insult, as the representative of that section of the Republican party which sought the revision of theDreyfus affair. On the day of President Faure's funeralPaul Déroulède met the troops underGeneral Roget on their return to barracks, and demanded that the general should march on the Elysée. Roget sensibly took his troops back to barracks. At the Auteuil steeplechase in June, the president was struck on the head with a cane by an anti-Dreyfusard. In that month President Loubet summoned Waldeck-Rousseau to form a cabinet, and at the same time entreated Republicans of all shades of opinion to rally to the defence of the state. By the efforts of Loubet and Waldeck-Rousseau the Dreyfus affair was settled, when Loubet, acting on the advice ofGeneral Galliffet, minister of war, remitted the ten years' imprisonment to whichDreyfus was condemned atRennes.[1]
Loubet's presidency saw an acute stage of the clerical question, which was attacked byWaldeck-Rousseau and in still more drastic fashion by theCombes ministry. The French ambassador was recalled from theVatican in April 1905, and in July theseparation of church and state was voted in theChamber of Deputies. Feeling had run high between France andBritain over the mutual criticisms passed on the conduct of theSouth African War and theDreyfus affair respectively. These differences were composed, by the Anglo-Frenchentente, and in 1904 a convention between the two countries secured the recognition of French claims inMorocco in exchange for non-interference with the British occupation of Egypt. President Loubet belonged to the peasant-proprietor class, and had none of the aristocratic proclivities of President Faure. He inaugurated theParis Exhibition of 1900, received the emperorNicholas II of Russia at theFrench maneuvers of 1901 and paid a visit toRussia in 1902.[1]
On 4 July 1902 President Loubet was elected an honorary member of the Rhode IslandSociety of the Cincinnati.[citation needed]
Loubet also exchanged visits withKing Edward VII, with the king of Portugal, the king of Italy and the king of Spain. During the king of Spain's visit in 1905, an attempt was made on his life, a bomb being thrown under his carriage as he and with his guest left theOpéra Garnier.[1][3] When his presidency came to an end in January 1906, he became the first President of the Third Republic to have served a full term and without resigning asecond one.[1] He retired into private life and died on 20 December 1929 at the age of 90.
He received the following orders and decorations:[4][5]
Changes
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Loubet, Émile François".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 26.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Public Works 1887–1888 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1892–1893 | |
| Preceded by | President of the Senate 1895–1899 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of France 1899–1906 | |
| Regnal titles | ||
| Preceded by | Co-Prince of Andorra 1899–1906 Served alongside: Salvador Casañas i Pagés(1899–1901) Ramon Riu i Cabanes(1901) Toribio Martín(Acting) Joan Josep Laguarda i Fenollera(1902–1906) | Succeeded by |
