Pierre Mendès-France

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(b. 11. Jan. 1907; d. 18 Oct. 1982) French; Prime Minister 1954 – 5 Pierre Mendès France was Prime Minister of France for a 7½-month period in 1954 – 5. A professional politician and long-time member of the Radical Party, whose leader he was 1955 – 7, he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1932. He became the youngest ever minister in the history of the Third Republic when he joined Léon Blum's 1938 government and he was a member of de Gaulle's provisional government in 1944 – 5. Yet in conventional terms his career was a failure. He was only briefly in government during the Fourth Republic and he never subsequently held office. Only once, after de Gaulle's return to power in 1958, did he manage to win a parliamentary seat, and in the 1969 presidential election the joint campaign he ran with Gaston Deffere obtained a humiliating 5 per cent of the vote. His intransigent opposition to the new constitutional order of the Fifth Republic (in particular the directly elected presidency) completely failed to mobilize public support.

The paradox is that, for all this apparent failure, Mendès France acquired during his lifetime a political stature that was denied to any of his contemporaries and that even today mendésisme has, for some at least, an inspirational quality. How can this be explained? Part of the answer lies in the record of his 1954 government. As Prime Minister, he ended the disastrous colonial war in Indo-China and set Tunisia and Morocco on the path to independence. He showed a dynamic and determined style of leadership that contrasted with the shabby compromises usually associated with Fourth Republic governments and was encapsulated in the famous phrase "To Govern is to Choose". His premiership won plaudits from overseas figures like Churchill and Dulles and his attempt to substitute issue-centred reformism for the sterile ideological absolutes of French party rhetoric was attractive to many French modernizers. Yet the real source of his appeal lay in the impression of principle and integrity that he conveyed. His personal bravery was never in doubt and was demonstrated during the Second World War when he was persecuted for his refusal to accept defeat and collaboration and subsequently by his resilience in the face of bitter attacks from his opponents. After 1958, his implacable opposition to what he saw as the authoritarian nature of the Fifth Republic appealed not only to defenders of France's republican traditions but to a new generation of political radicals. His (silent) appearance at the huge Charlety meeting during the 1968 Events showed that he was the only established political figure to have the respect of the protesting students: 1968, like Mendès France, failed to overthrow the Fifth Republic. He retired from political life in 1973 but the Mendès name and reputation certainly contributed to the creation of the left-wing coalition that eventually won power, under Mitterrand, in 1981. The new President was right to say, when embracing Mendès France after the installation in office, "Without you I would not be here."

Although Pierre Mendès France (1907-1982) only held the prime ministry for seven months and spent most of his political career criticizing rather than participating in governments, he was one of the most influential and important figures in 20th-century French politics.

Pierre Mendès France was born in Paris on January 11, 1907. His was a fully assimilated Jewish family that had first come to France from Spain during the Inquisition. By the 19th century the Mendès France family had firmly entered the bourgeoisie; Pierre's father, in fact, was a highly successful merchant who was also a staunch supporter of the Third Republic.

Mendès (he was frequently referred to simply as Mendès) was a brilliant student who was the youngest lawyer in France when he passed the bar. His doctoral thesis on Poincaré's economic policies immediately propelled him into the public eye as one of the first people in France to argue that the state had to coordinate market forces to modernize the woefully backward French economy.

Not surprisingly, the young lawyer soon turned to politics. As a student he had joined the Radical-Socialist Party and headed its youth organization. In 1934 party leaders suggested he run for mayor of Louviers in Normandy, and, much to the surprise of local political observers, he won. In 1936 he was elected to Parliament from Louviers, becoming the youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies. His meteoric rise continued. He was immediately elected chairman of the Customs Committee of the Chamber and was named under secretary of state in the Treasury Department the following year.

Even that early in his career, Mendès France was known for two things - his commitment to modern Keynesian economic policy and his desire for a better blend of effective decision making and popular control over government. Thus he both supported the Popular Front's social reforms and advocated more government intervention in basic macro-and micro-economic policy making.

Mendès France's career was interrupted by World War II. At the outbreak of the war he took a regular army air corps commission and served in the Middle East. France's defeat found him in Paris, and he was one of but 80 members of Parliament to vote against surrender in June 1940. Instead, he and his family left for Morocco to try to continue the war and free France from its German occupiers and the new collaborationist Vichy government. However, he was soon arrested, sent back to France, and put on trial as a traitor. He was quickly convicted and sentenced to six years in jail on August 31, 1940. The following June he escaped from a prison hospital and, upon escaping France, joined General de Gaulle's resistance movement in London. De Gaulle named Mendès to a series of ministerial positions in the government-in-exile and in the provisional governments once France was liberated. In 1946 de Gaulle and Mendès parted ways over the general's failure to endorse Mendès' economic and political view regarding the reconstruction of France.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s the Fourth Republic reverted to the ineffectual politics of "immobilism" that had paralyzed the country before World War II. Mendès grew more critical of the system and found himself further and further from the center of power. As the domestic and international situations worsened, men such as Mendès became more viable candidates for the prime ministry as alternatives to those who seemed incapable of helping France solve its many problems.

Pierre Mendès France finally got his chance after the French army in Vietnam was defeated in 1954. In his investiture speech as prime minister he promised to end French involvement in Indo-China within 60 days and then proceed to major economic and political changes. He succeeded in ending French involvement in Indochina, but that was all. Once that crisis ended, politics returned to normal. His innovative policy proposals were blocked by politicians on the left and on the right, including many members of his own Radical Party. Finally, after less than seven months in office, his government lost a vote of confidence on February 5, 1955, and resigned. Pierre Mendès France never held a major office again.

His first 20 years in politics did convince Mendès France that the system needed a fundamental overhaul. By the end of the 1950s he had left the Radical Party and had helped form the new Unified Socialist Party (PSU). Like many others, he hoped the PSU would reinvigorate the left and help move the country toward what he called a "modern Republic" capable of making humane and efficient economic policy while giving people more control over the decisions shaping their lives.

In 1967 Mendès France was reelected to Parliament, this time from the booming, modern city of Grenoble. In May 1968 he joined the PSU in supporting student and worker demonstrations, but, unlike the young radicals, Mendès could not endorse a revolutionary solution to the crisis. Instead, he and François Mitterrand proposed themselves as prime minister and president respectively in a provisional government to replace the teetering Gaullist regime. That proposal proved a political catastrophe as the right, not the left, won the elections held that June. Mendès even lost his seat in Parliament in the Gaullist landslide.

He then broke with the PSU, which had veered sharply to the left in the aftermath of the "events of May." He joined the new Socialist Party, headed by François Mitterrand, shortly thereafter and was elected to Parliament again in 1973, 1978, and 1981.

By the time the Socialist Party finally won in 1981 Mendès France was too old and too ill to serve in President Mitterrand's cabinet. But, in many respects, the goals of the new government were his - hopes for more coordinated economic policy, government control over growth sectors of the economy, decentralization, and expansion of respect for human rights. By the time he died on October 18, 1982, everyone from left to right realized that a man whose great gifts had never fully been utilized had passed from the scene.

Further Reading

Unlike most French politicians, there is quite a bit of material on Pierre Mendès France in English. The definitive biography is Jean Lacouture, Pierre Mendès France (1984). For Mendès' own views, the best source is Pierre Mendès France, A Modern French Republic (1962).

Mendès-France, Pierre (1907-82). The last important leader of the once powerful French Radical Party. After participating in the Resistance, he became a député in 1946 and prime minister in 1954, when he succeeded in extricating France from the war in Indo-China. His austere policies attracted much hostility, and he was defeated in 1955 and never returned to power, but his vision and commitment have remained a source of inspiration to many on the Left.

[Peter France]