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Political Biography:

Pierre Laval

(b. Châteldon, 28 June 1883; d. 15 Oct. 1945) French; Prime Minister 1930, 1935, head of government of the French state 1940, 1942 – 4 Pierre Laval was a classic example of the poor boy who makes good and turns bad. Born in the small town of Châteldon (Puy-de-Dôme), the son of a barkeeper, he was a brilliant schoolboy and managed by hard work to obtain a law degree. Like many of his kind, he decided to make his fortune as a lawyer in Paris and built up a reputation defending radical trade unionists who had fallen foul of the police authorities. His early political sympathies were with the Socialist Party of Jaurès and he became in rapid succession deputy and mayor of the working-class suburb of Aubervilliers, north of Paris. After the First World War, he began a journey away from the left which led him to swap his parliamentary seat for the more conservative Orne, to start representing companies rather than trade unionists, to build up a business empire based on provincial newspapers, and to buy the château in his home town. He held a number of ministerial portfolios in the late 1920s and in 1930 was briefly Prime Minister. His political skills, like those of his mentor Briand, were those of the negotiator and manipulator and he prided himself on what he regarded as his peasant cunning. By the mid-1930s, however, when he became Prime Minister for the second time he was clearly identified with deflation at home (public sector pay cuts) and appeasement abroad (the *Hoare — Laval pact of 1935). Neither of these policies was likely to appeal to the left-wing coalition which won the Popular Front elections in 1936. Laval's resentment at exclusion from office fuelled a hostility to the Republican parties which had caused it that would become obvious in 1940. Yet it was foreign policy which proved to be decisive in his political evolution. A committed supporter of appeasement, he nurtured the dream of an alliance with Mussolini's Italy and was openly critical of the decision to go to war with Germany. He participated in all the parliamentary intrigues designed to end the war in the winter of 1939 – 40.

Laval played no part in the events which led Pétain to seek an armistice with Hitler in June 1940. Once Pétain's intention to proceed to a constitutional revolution became clear, however, he rushed to Vichy to be at his side and his political skills played a decisive role in the French Parliament's decision to vote itself out of existence. When Pétain appointed himself head of the French state, Laval became his Prime Minister. He plunged into the task of establishing good relations with the Nazi Occupier and pledged himself to a policy of collaboration, Laval was indifferent to the reactionary fantasies of the ideologues of the État Français; they, like Pétain, regarded him with a mixture of contempt and fear. In December 1940 he was sacked and briefly detained in a coup organized by Pétain's inner court. His career was saved by the correct belief of the Germans that he was the best defender of the cause of collaboration. Relations with Pétain were patched up and by 1942 he was back in office as the official number two of the regime. It was now that he committed the acts which would eventually destroy him. Convinced both of his indispensability and of the necessity for ever closer collaboration, he co-operated with the Germans in the deportation of the Jews and introduced the hated system of industrial conscription which sent thousands of French workers to German factories in return for a small number of prisoners of war. His government introduced ever more repressive measures against members of the Resistance and underwrote the terror campaign carried out by Joseph Darnand. As the last remnants of Vichy's authority crumbled in the face of the liberating armies, Laval strove to protect his future (it is amazing he thought he had one) by unsuccessfully trying to persuade the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Herriot, to recall the National Assembly which had been dissolved in 1940. Deported with the rest of the Vichy crew to Germany, he refused, like Pétain, to take any part in the fantasy "governments of national liberation" set up by the Nazis. At the end of the war, he managed to flee to Franco's Spain, where he sought exile. Franco, however, handed him over to the French authorities who put him on trial for treason. At his and Pétain's trial, he tried to argue that collaboration had been designed to protect French soil and French lives. After a trial which brought no credit on the French judicial system, he was found guilty of treason and condemned to death. On the day of his execution, he tried to commit suicide by poison, was brought back to life by the prison guards, taken out, and shot. He was still wearing the tricolour sash which was the symbol of his office of mayor of Aubervilliers.

Laval remains to this day an outcast figure in France and no serious attempts have been made to rehabilitate him. His unattractive personal appearance and politican's cunning made him a convenient scapegoat, after his execution, for the error of others. Yet if he cannot be regarded as Vichy's evil genius, his responsibility for some of the worst cruelties of the Occupation, and his enthusiasm for a German victory, are beyond question. A belief that Nazi Germany was the only way to prevent the Bolshevization of France is one part of the answer, sheer lust for office another. But perhaps the principal motivation was his belief that he alone could strike a deal with Hitler. Laval prided himself on his realism and on his peasant's ability to negotiate a good bargain. It was a misplaced pride and one which cost him, and France, very dear.

 
 
Biography: Pierre Laval

The French politician Pierre Laval (1883-1945) served as chief minister in the World War II Vichy regime. He was later tried for treason and executed.

Pierre Laval was born on June 28, 1883, the son of a café owner at Châteldon. Financing his legal education by tutoring, he entered politics on the extreme left. After earning a reputation as a labor lawyer, he was sent to Parliament in 1914 as a Socialist deputy by the working-class voters of Aubervilliers. During World War I Laval first demonstrated the extreme ideological flexibility that marked his entire career. Aligned for 2 years with Joseph Caillaux, who advocated a negotiated peace with Germany, Laval was known as a defeatist. Sensing that Caillaux's views were increasingly unpopular, Laval adeptly switched sides in 1917. Soon he clamored for the return to power of the ultranationalist Georges Clemenceau, who became prime minister in November 1917 and immediately jailed Caillaux.

Laval was momentarily damaged politically by his association with Caillaux and was defeated for reelection in 1919. The next 5 years he spent amassing a substantial fortune in legal practice, journalism, and other business interests. Officially remaining a Socialist and an admirer of Lenin in the early 1920s, he abandoned his party shortly before the elections of 1924 and reentered the Chamber as an independent leftist.

Premier and Foreign Minister

In 1926 Laval was elected to the Senate and continued his movement to the right. Often a minister in the late 1920s, he became premier for the first time in January 1931. Brought down after a year in office over a question of fiscal policy, he served as prime minister once more from June 1935 to January 1936.

Before 1940 Laval had his greatest impact on French foreign policy. Four times foreign minister during 1932-1936, he steadfastly sought accommodation with Mussolini's Italy against resurgent Germany. Coauthor of the abortive Hoare-Laval Agreement, which was meant to appease Mussolini at the expense of Abyssinia, he was overthrown when the British Cabinet repudiated the arrangement. For the rest of his life Laval hated the British and was determined to exact his revenge. Realizing that a united Franco-Italian front against Germany had been rendered impossible by the British action, he did an about-face and began to urge the necessity of reaching an understanding with Hitler. France, Laval argued, could not survive the ordeal of another war.

Vichy Regime

Out of office after 1936, Laval in 1939 was an advocate of peace at any price. After the fall of France in June 1940, he joined the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain as the chief minister. Instrumental in securing parliamentary ratification of the armistice terms and the granting of full constituent powers to Pétain, Laval during the last 6 months of 1940 urged that France must accept the fact of German victory and through collaboration find its rightful place in Hitler's "New Order." Considered far too willing to collaborate by his fellow ministers, he was ousted from power in a palace revolt on Dec. 13, 1940.

Laval remained out of office until April 1942, when Berlin pressured Pétain into restoring him to power. The Germans rightly calculated that they could obtain from him greater supplies of French workers than they were getting from his predecessor, Adm. J. F. Darlan. Engaged massively against the Soviet Union, the Germans also knew that a frankly collaborationist regime in France under Laval guaranteed their security in the west. Laval responded by accentuating his collaborationism and said that he "hoped for a German victory to avoid the Bolshevization of Europe."

Realizing in the summer of 1944 that the end was near, Laval sought to call a national assembly at Paris to deal with the new situation. Intended to save his own skin as well, the maneuver was too little too late, and in the middle of the month he was ignominiously carried off in the baggage of the retreating Germans. Escaping his captors, he was found by the Americans in Austria and handed over to the French.

Laval's trial for treason by the provisional government of Charles De Gaulle began at Paris on Oct. 4, 1945. Even for a political trial it was a shabby affair: irregular, mismanaged, and - embarrassed by Laval's clever and effective defense - cut short by the government. Laval was convicted and sentenced to death, and Charles De Gaulle personally refused him a new trial. Nearly escaping Gaullist justice by swallowing poison, Laval was revived by a team of frantic doctors and a few hours later was executed by firing squad, on Oct. 15, 1945.

Pierre Laval is one of the most intensely controversial figures in recent French history. His detractors portray him as the archvillain of wartime France who sold his countrymen to the Nazis. His admirers claim he is the unsung hero who single-handedly kept French losses to a minimum after April 1942 by playing a double game with the Germans. There may be partial truth in both views. In any case, although so closely identified with the Vichy regime, Laval loathed the cultist idolatry of Pétain and scorned the high-flown emptiness of the National Revolution. Instead he had an instrumental view of French national interest and, because he was convinced of the finality of German victory, that necessarily meant collaboration. That in the end he miscalculated may then be due to the fact that the politics he had learned in the sovereign Third Republic were irrelevant to the satellite status of France after June 1940. From this perspective Laval may be seen as much the prisoner of his own narrow political opportunism as he was the captive of his German sponsors.

Further Reading

Laval states his own case in The Diary of Pierre Laval (1948). There is no good study of him in any language. The best short biographies are David Thomson, Two Frenchmen: Pierre Laval and Charles De Gaulle (1951), and Hubert Cole, Laval: A Biography (1963), both of which are sympathetic without being apologetic. There is an interesting psychoanalytic treatment of the man in David Abrahamsen, Men, Mind and Power (1945). Laval's son-in-law, René de Chambrun, collected several hundred sworn statements from French, German, and American witnesses in France during the German Occupation (3 vols., 1958-1959), intending to present a favorable view of the Vichy regime in general and of Laval in particular. Recommended for general historical background are Alexander Werth, The Twilight of France, 1933-1940 (1942); Paul Farmer, Vichy: Political Dilemma (1955); and Robert Aron, The Vichy Regime, 1940-1944 (1958).

Additional Sources

Chambrun, Rene de, Pierre Laval: traitor or patriot?, New York: Scribner, 1984.

 

(born June 28, 1883, Châteldon, France — died Oct. 15, 1945, Paris) French politician. A member of the Chamber of Deputies (1914 – 19, 1924 – 27) and later the Senate (from 1927), he also held a number of cabinet posts, and, as France's premier (1931 – 32, 1935 – 36), he developed the widely denounced Hoare-Laval Pact. In 1940, as minister of state in Philippe Pétain's government (see Vichy France), he began negotiations with the Germans on his own initiative, which aroused suspicion. Pétain soon dismissed him, but in 1942 he returned as head of the government. He agreed to provide French labourers for German industries and announced in a speech that he desired a German victory. In 1945 he was tried and executed as a traitor to France.

For more information on Pierre Laval, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Laval, Pierre
(pyĕr läväl') , 1883–1945, French politician. Elected (1914) to the chamber of deputies as a Socialist, he held various cabinet posts and in 1926 became a senator as an Independent, moving away from his leftist affiliations. In 1931–32 and 1935–36 he was premier and foreign minister. With Sir Samuel Hoare (later Viscount Templewood), he proposed (Dec., 1935) a settlement to halt the Italian conquest of Ethiopia; the plan was seen as appeasement of Benito Mussolini, and his government collapsed. After the start of World War II and the fall of France in 1940, Laval reached new prominence. In the Vichy government under Marshal Pétain he became vice premier and foreign minister, but in Dec., 1940, he was dismissed and replaced by Admiral Darlan, apparently on suspicion that he was planning to overthrow Pétain. Entering the German-occupied part of France, Laval outspokenly advocated collaboration with Germany. Pétain reinstated Laval in Apr., 1942, and in November gave him dictatorial powers. Laval's government drafted laborers for German factories, cooperated in the persecution and deportation of Jews to death camps, authorized a French fascist militia, and instituted a rule of terror. After the Allied invasion of France he was taken (Aug., 1944) with the retreating Germans to Germany. He fled (May, 1945) to Spain, was expelled, and finally surrendered in Austria to American forces, which extradited him to France. Tried for treason, he was sentenced to death, and after an unsuccessful attempt at suicide he was executed. While the verdict may have been just, Laval's trial was conducted so poorly that it was denounced by many. Laval defended himself brilliantly and ascribed patriotic motives to his opportunist policies. His notes for his defense were edited by his daughter, Josée Laval, comtesse de Chambrun, and appeared in English in 1948.

Bibliography

See biography by Hubert Cole (1963); D. Thompson, Two Frenchmen: Pierre Laval and Charles de Gaulle (1951); G. Warner, Pierre Laval and the Eclipse of France (1968).

 
Wikipedia: Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval

In office
January 27, 1931 – February 20, 1932
Preceded by Théodore Steeg
Succeeded by André Tardieu

In office
June 7, 1935 – January 24, 1936
Preceded by Fernand Bouisson
Succeeded by Albert Sarraut

In office
July 11, 1940 – December 13, 1940
Preceded by Philippe Pétain
Succeeded by Pierre Étienne Flandin

In office
April 18, 1942 – August 20, 1944
Preceded by François Darlan
Succeeded by Charles de Gaulle

Born June 28 1883(1883--)
Died October 15 1945 (aged 62)
Political party None
Religion Roman Catholic

Pierre Laval (28 June 188315 October 1945) was a French politician and four times Prime Minister, the third and fourth times being under the Vichy government. After World War II he was convicted of high treason and executed.

Career during the Third Republic

Further information: French Third Republic

Laval was born in Châteldon in the Puy-de-Dôme département of the Auvergne region. He became an active socialist, and in 1903 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the SFIO (Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière - the French socialist party) to which he was re-elected three times. He earned a law degree, and practiced law in Paris from 1907.

Laval did not serve in World War I. During this period, his politics moved towards the political right. He was defeated in the first post-war election in 1919. In 1924, he became mayor of Aubervilliers, a town in the northern suburbs of Paris, and left the SFIO. Despite this, his power in national affairs continued to increase. In 1925, he first served in ministerial office, as Minister of Transportation under Painlevé. In 1926 he was Minister of Justice under Briand. In 1927, he was elected to the Senate, and again in 1936.

Laval held no offices in 1927-1929, but from 1930 to 1936 he was a prominent figure in most of the governments formed. He was Prime Minister from 27 January 1931 to 6 February 1932, and was named Time's 1931 Man of the Year. The February 6, 1934 riots organized by far-right leagues led to the toppling of the second Cartel des gauches (Left-Wing Cartel) which had came to power two years earlier. These extra-parliamentary leagues maintained contacts with some conservative politicians, among whom Laval and Philippe Pétain. After Louis Barthou's assassination, the now Minister of Colonies Laval succeeded to him in Gaston Doumergue's government, in October 1934, leading France's foreign policies until 1936. At this time, Laval was opposed to Germany, the "hereditary enemy" of France. He pursued anti-German alliances with Mussolini's Italy and Stalin's USSR. He met with Mussolini in Rome on 4 January 1935, leading to the signature of the Franco–Italian Agreement which gave Italy parts of the French Somaliland (now Djibouti) and allowed it a free hand in the Abyssinia Crisis, in exchange with support against any German aggression [1]. In April 1935, Laval convinced Italy and Great Britain to join France in the Stresa Front against German ambitions in Austria. In June 1935, he became Prime Minister as well.

Also in 1935, Laval's daughter Josée Marie married René de Chambrun, son of Count Aldebert de Chambrun. (De Chambrun was a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette. René's mother, Clara Longworth de Chambrun, was the sister of Theodore Roosevelt's son-in-law.)

In October 1935, Laval and the British foreign minister, Samuel Hoare, proposed a "realpolitik" solution to the Abyssinia crisis. Leaked to the media in December, the Hoare-Laval Pact was widely denounced as appeasement to Mussolini. Laval was forced to resign on 22 January 1936, and was driven completely out of ministerial politics.

Laval returned to his business career, but soon had major political influence after he assembled an extensive media empire through acquisitions of newspapers and radio. The victory of the Popular Front in 1936 meant that Laval had a left-wing government as a target for his media.

Under Vichy France

Further information: Vichy France

After the defeat of France in June 1940, Laval's papers and radio stations played a prominent part in forcing the resignations of the Reynaud government and then supporting the new Vichy regime of Philippe Pétain. On 12 July 1940, Laval became Vice-Premier.

From July to December 1940, Laval's policy was active collaboration with Nazi Germany. He named Fernand de Brinon, a Nazi sympathizer, to lead the surrender negotiations with the Germans. He met Adolf Hitler in Montoire on 22 October 1940, and proposed an alliance between France and Nazi Germany. Two days later, he arranged the meeting between Pétain and Hitler in Montoire, where Vichy's collaborationist policy was ratified by a handshake between the two men.

Laval did many unsolicited favors for the Germans, without getting or even requesting anything in return. He delivered the Belgian Central Bank's gold to Germany, which Belgium had sent to France for protection. He ceded France's stake in the copper mines of Bor in Yugoslavia, which were the largest mines in Europe producing this strategic metal. He also proposed the return of the government to Paris, where it would be under more surveillance from the Germans.

In November 1940, at a meeting with Hermann Göring, Laval suggested a military alliance with Germany. He made plans for a joint reconquest of Chad, whose governor, Félix Eboué, had joined the Free French Forces.

Some members of the government found him too radical, while Pétain worried about Laval's unpopularity and ambition. On 13 December 1940, Pétain removed Laval, replacing him with Flandin and then Darlan. They continued Laval's collaborationist and authoritarian policy. Laval was briefly arrested, but Otto Abetz, the Reich's ambassador in France, had him quickly freed and moved to Paris, where he lived under German protection. He continued his political activity.

On 27 August 1941, Laval was injured in an assassination attempt by Paul Collette, a former member of the Croix-de-Feu. The attack occurred at a Légion des Volontaires Français (LVF) review. The LVF was an ultra-collaborationist militia which later became the SS Division Charlemagne. (Among those present at the review were Eugène Deloncle, the LVF's leader and former head of the terrorist group La Cagoule, Marcel Déat, founder of the Collaborationist Rassemblement national populaire (RNP), Fernand de Brinon, general delegate of the Vichy regime in occupied territories, Marc Chevallier, prefect of Seine-et-Oise, and the German plenipotentiary minister Schleier.) Laval soon recovered from the injury.

Laval was recalled to the Vichy government on 18 April 1942. This time he became Prime Minister and succeeded Darlan as the leading figure in the regime after Pétain himself. Laval was largely blamed for the increase in anti-Jewish activities and the decision to send French workers to Germany through la relève and later the Service du Travail Obligatoire. The creation of the Vichy Milice in January 1943 has also been ascribed to Laval.

After the Allied invasion of France, the government moved from Vichy to Belfort and then, in August 1944, to Sigmaringen in Germany. (He appears as a character in Louis Ferdinand Céline's novel Castle to Castle, which is set largely at Sigmaringen.) In May 1945 Laval fled. He first went to Spain but was deported and ended up in Austria where he was handed over to the Allied forces.

Trial and execution

On 30 July 1945 Laval was handed over to the new French government. Charged with treason and violating state security, he was tried and found guilty, despite vigorously defending himself in the first part of his trial. He was sentenced to death on 9 October. After a failed attempt at suicide (the cyanide had lost its full potency), he was executed by firing squad at Fresnes prison, near Paris, half-unconscious and vomiting on 15 October 1945.

Parliamentary offices

  • 10/05/1914 - 07/12/1919  : Deputy of the Seine department
  • 11/05/1924 - 17/02/1927 : Deputy of the Seine - Not registered in any parliamentary group
  • Senator from 1927 to 1936 and from 1936 to 1944 [2]

Laval's First Government, 27 January 1931 - 14 January 1932

Enlarge
  • Pierre Laval - President of the Council and Minister of the Interior
  • Aristide Briand - Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • André Maginot - Minister of War
  • Pierre Étienne Flandin - Minister of Finance
  • François Piétri - Minister of Budget
  • Adolphe Landry - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
  • Léon Bérard - Minister of Justice
  • Charles Dumont - Minister of Marine
  • Louis de Chappedelaine - Minister of Merchant Marine
  • Jacques-Louis Dumesnil - Minister of Air
  • Mario Roustan - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
  • Auguste Champetier de Ribes - Minister of Pensions
  • André Tardieu - Minister of Agriculture
  • Paul Reynaud - Minister of Colonies
  • Maurice Deligne - Minister of Public Works
  • Camille Blaisot - Minister of Public Health
  • Charles Guernier - Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
  • Louis Rollin - Minister of Commerce and Industry

Laval's Second Government, 14 January - 20 February 1932

  • Pierre Laval - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • André Tardieu - Minister of War
  • Pierre Cathala - Minister of the Interior
  • Pierre Étienne Flandin - Minister of Finance
  • François Piétri - Minister of Budget
  • Adolphe Landry - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
  • Léon Bérard - Minister of Justice
  • Charles Dumont - Minister of Marine
  • Louis de Chappedelaine - Minister of Merchant Marine
  • Jacques-Louis Dumesnil - Minister of Air
  • Mario Roustan - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
  • Auguste Champetier de Ribes - Minister of Pensions
  • Achille Fould - Minister of Agriculture
  • Paul Reynaud - Minister of Colonies
  • Maurice Deligne - Minister of Public Works
  • Camille Blaisot - Minister of Public Health
  • Charles Guernier - Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
  • Louis Rollin - Minister of Commerce and Industry

Laval's Third Ministry, 7 June 1935 - 24 January 1936

  • Pierre Laval - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Jean Fabry - Minister of War
  • Joseph Paganon - Minister of the Interior
  • Marcel Régnier - Minister of Finance
  • Ludovic-Oscar Frossard - Minister of Labour
  • Léon Bérard - Minister of Justice
  • François Piétri - Minister of Marine
  • Mario Roustan - Minister of Merchant Marine
  • Victor Denain - Minister of Air
  • Philippe Marcombes - Minister of National Education
  • Henri Maupoil - Minister of Pensions
  • Pierre Cathala - Minister of Agriculture
  • Louis Rollin - Minister of Colonies
  • Laurent Eynac - Minister of Public Works
  • Louis Lafont - Minister of Public Health and Physical Education
  • Georges Mandel - Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
  • Georges Bonnet - Minister of Commerce and Industry
  • Édouard Herriot - Minister of State
  • Louis Marin - Minister of State
  • Pierre Étienne Flandin - Minister of State

Changes

  • 17 June 1935 - Mario Roustan succeeds Marcombes (d. 13 June) as Minister of National Education. William Bertrand succeeds Roustan as Minister of Merchant Marine.

Laval's Fourth Ministry, 18 April 1942 - 20 August 1944

  • Pierre Laval - President of the Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Interior, and Minister of Information
  • Eugène Bridoux - Minister of War
  • Pierre Cathala - Minister of Finance and National Economy
  • Jean Bichelonne - Minister of Industrial Production
  • Hubert Lagardelle - Minister of Labour
  • Joseph Barthélemy - Minister of Justice
  • Gabriel Auphan - Minister of Marine
  • Jean-François Jannekeyn - Minister of Air
  • Abel Bonnard - Minister of National Education
  • Jacques Le Roy Ladurie - Minister of Agriculture
  • Max Bonnafous - Minister of Supply
  • Jules Brévié - Minister of Colonies
  • Raymond Grasset - Minister of Family and Health
  • Robert Gibrat - Minister of Communication
  • Lucien Romier - Minister of State

Changes

  • 11 September 1942 - Max Bonnafous succeeds Le Roy Ladurie as Minister of Agriculture, remaining also Minister of Supply
  • 18 November 1942 - Jean-Charles Abrial succeeds Auphan as Minister of Marine. Jean Bichelonne succeeds Gibrat as Minister of Communication, remaining also Minister of Industrial Production.
  • 26 March 1943 - Maurice Gabolde succeeds Barthélemy as Minister of Justice. Henri Bléhaut succeeds Abrial as Minister of Marine and Brévié as Minister of Colonies.
  • 21 November 1943 - Jean Bichelonne succeeds Lagardelle as Minister of Labour, remaining also Minister of Industrial Production and Communication.
  • 31 December 1943 - Minister of State Lucien Romier resigns from the government.
  • 6 January 1944 - Pierre Cathala succeeds Bonnafous as Minister of Agriculture and Supply, remaining also Minister of Finance and National Economy.
  • 3 March 1944 - The office of Minister of Supply is abolished. Pierre Cathala remains Minister of Finance, National Economy, and Agriculture.
  • 16 March 1944 - Marcel Déat succeeds Bichelonne as Minister of Labour and National Solidarity. Bichelonne remains Minister of Industrial Production and Communication.

References and external links

  1. ^ André Larané, 4 janvier 1935: Laval rencontre Mussolini à Rome, Hérodote (French)
  2. ^ Biographical notice of Laval on the French National Assembly's website (French)
  • "Time" magazine articles on Laval:
    • Man of the Year profile, Jan. 4, 1932
    • Article on the Laval treason trial, Oct. 15, 1945
    • Article on Laval's testimony in Petain's trial, Aug. 13, 1945


Preceded by
Victor Peytral
Minister of Transportation
1925
Succeeded by
Anatole de Monzie
Preceded by
René Renoult
Minister of Justice
1926
Succeeded by
Maurice Colrat
Preceded by
Louis Loucheur
Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
1930
Succeeded by
Édouard Grinda
Preceded by
Théodore Steeg
President of the Council
1931–1932
Succeeded by
André Tardieu
Preceded by
Georges Leygues
Minister of the Interior
1931–1932
Succeeded by
Pierre Cathala
Preceded by
Aristide Briand
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1932
Succeeded by
André Tardieu
Preceded by
Adolphe Landry
Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
1932
Succeeded by
Albert Dalimier
Preceded by
Henry de Jouvenel
Minister of Colonies
1934
Succeeded by
Louis Rollin
Preceded by
Louis Barthou
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1934–1936
Succeeded by
Pierre Étienne Flandin
Preceded by
Fernand Bouisson
President of the Council
1935–1936
Succeeded by
Albert Sarraut
Preceded by
Philippe Pétain
Vice President of the Council
1940
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Paul Baudoin
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1940
Succeeded by
Pierre Étienne Flandin
Preceded by
Philippe Pétain
President of the Council
1942–1944
Succeeded by
Charles de Gaulle
Preceded by
François Darlan
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1942–1944
Succeeded by
Georges Bidault
Preceded by
Pierre Pucheu
Minister of the Interior
1942–1944
Succeeded by
Adrien Tixier
Preceded by
Paul Marion
Minister of Information
1942–1944
Succeeded by
Pierre-Henri Teitgen
Preceded by
Mahatma Gandhi
Time's Man of the Year
1931
Succeeded by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Persondata
NAME Laval, Pierre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION French politician
DATE OF BIRTH 28 June 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Châteldon, Puy-de-Dôme, France
DATE OF DEATH 15 October 1945
PLACE OF DEATH Paris, France

 
 

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Political Biography. A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
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