A doctor, he entered politics at the fall of the Second Empire in 1870. First elected mayor of Paris, he became a member of the National Assembly on February 8, 1871. Having resigned during the Commune (March 18-May 27, 1871), he took the head of the municipal council of Paris in 1875 before becoming an extreme left deputy the following year. Nicknamed the "deader of ministries", he successively brought down the ministries of Léon Gambetta and Jules Ferry.
Discredited by the Boulangism and Panama scandals, he moved away from politics but supported the Dreyfus Affair by publishing "J'accuse" by Zola in L'Aurore . Senator in 1902, he became Minister of the Interior in 1906. He firmly repressed the strikes opposed to his social reforms, cracking the agreement of the radicals and pushing him towards the opposition.
Recalled to head the government in 1917 by Raymond Poincaré, he became firmly involved in the war, which gave him great popularity at the end of the conflict. Subsequently, he negotiated the Treaty of Versailles before being defeated in the presidential election in 1920, which put an end to his political career.
1841 - 1929
Status
Politician
Director of journals