Eugène Frot (2 October 1893 –10 April 1983) was a French politician who was Minister of Merchant Marine (twice),Minister of Labor and Social Assurance (twice) and Minister of the Interior in various short-lived cabinets between December 1932 and February 1934. While he was Minister of Interior,right-wing groups organized street demonstrations in Paris on 6 February 1934 in which the police shot dead fourteen people. In the aftermath the cabinet was forced to resign. Frot supported Republican institutions,but by the late 1930s was a committed pacifist. In July 1940 he voted for the constitutional change that established the collaborationist Vichy government. As a result,he was barred from politics after the war.
Eugène Frot was born on 2 October 1893 in Montargis,Loiret. [1] He became an attorney at the Paris court of appeal,and a publicist. In the general election of 1919 he ran for Loiret at the head of the Republican Concentration and Renovation list,but was not elected. [2]
On 11 May 1924 Frot ran again as candidate of the Left Union,and was elected. He joined the Socialist group in the chamber. [2] He was reelected in the first round for the Montargis constituency on the list of the Union of Radical Lefts and Socialists. He joined the committees on Foreign Affairs and on Public Works &Communications. He was reelected in the first round in 1932. [3]
Frot was under secretary of state for the president of the council from 18 December 1932 to 28 January 1933 in the cabinet of Joseph Paul-Boncour. He was Minister of Merchant Marine from 31 January 1933 to 24 October 1933 in the cabinet of Édouard Daladier. He was Minister of Labor and Social Assurance from 26 October 1933 to 23 November 1933 in the cabinet of Albert Sarraut. [3] He was Minister of Merchant Marine from 26 November 1933 to 9 January 1934. He was Minister of Labor and Social Assurance from 9 January 1934 to 27 January 1934. [2]
On 30 January 1934 Frot was appointed Minister of the Interior in Daladier's new cabinet. [3] Right wing groups began rumors that Frot was the leader of a group of Daladier's ministers who aimed to establish a "dictatorship of the left". [4] These groups organized a street demonstration on 6 February 1934 in Paris that turned into a riot. The police opened fire on the demonstrators. Fourteen were killed,57 received bullet wounds and 655 were injured. One policeman was killed. [5] Frot remained at the Ministry of the Interior that evening trying to track what was happening,but was handicapped by wildly inaccurate reports that did not mention civilian casualties but stressed violence against the police. [5]
Daladier,several ministers and senior officials gathered at the Ministry of the Interior,where Frot recommended declaration of a state of siege,preventative arrests and a ban on arms sales. He was opposed by Charles Donat-Guigue,the attorney general,on various legal and constitutional grounds. [6] After Donat-Guigue left Frot gave Perrier,the head of police intelligence,authority to arrest extreme right and extreme left leaders other than municipal councilors,members of parliament,journalists and ancien combattants. [7] After the others had left,Frot requisitioned army units,launched investigations against the right-wing leaders Charles Maurras and Maurice Pujo,called for an interim ban on all public demonstrations and informed the press and radio of the measures taken. He said "Tomorrow we may have to defend order again;we will do so for France and the Republic." [7]
The police were not effective in their preventative arrests. They could not find Pujo. Maurras,who was soundly sleeping,did not open his door. The Garde Républicaine and the police were demoralized,blaming the authorities for the trouble as much as the crowds. [8] The next morning Frot received reports that the demonstrations would resume,with the protesters now carrying guns and grenades. He was told the Croix-de-Feu and Action Française were coordinating their actions,and the latter had condemned Frot to death. Frot sent a message to Daladier recommending that he resign to avoid civil war. Frot resigned,and at 1:30 pm Daladier also resigned. [9]
In the aftermath the Action Française journal accused Daladier,Frot,Pierre Cot and Léon Blum of having attempted a coup d'état,and called for them to be punished for the massacre of innocents. [10] Frot was accused of having ordered his armed agents to fire on unarmed people. He was called the "minister with bloody hands" and "Frot the executioner" (Frot-le-fusilleur). He was ostracized by his colleagues. [11] A group called the "Avocats du 6 Février",members of the Camelots du Roi,tried to prevent Frot working as an attorney,and started fights whenever Frot entered the Palais de Justice. [12] When Frot campaigned in 1935 for the Popular Front he was harassed by Camelots wherever he spoke in France. [13] Nevertheless,Frot was reelected in the first round on 26 April 1936. He sat with the Socialist and Republican Union,but was less active in the chamber. [3]
Frot vacillated in his political positions. [14] The pacifist Léon Emery stated at the 1935 congress of the Ligue des droits de l'homme,"Parliament has,in the last twenty years,done nothing for democracy ... the distrinction between fascist states and democratic ones is merely a question of degree and not a fundamental one." Frot spoke out against this position,saying "parliament is,after all ... the reflection of the wishes of universal suffrage." This drew boos that forced him to leave the podium. [15] By the late 1930s he had joined the extreme pacifists. [14] During World War II (1939–45) he voted on 10 July 1940 in favor of the constitutional law that gave full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain. [16]
Frot published articles in RenéChâteau's collaborationist paper France Socialiste. [14] He also joined the National Popular Rally (RNP). He agreed to sit in the Vichy National Council,but soon resigned,and in 1941 refused to enter the government of Admiral François Darlan. [1] In 1941–42 he wrote a number of articles that defended the Republic. [14] He helped the Nord movement but did not actively participate in the French Resistance. After the Liberation of France the jury of honor declared he was ineligible for elective office due to his vote on 10 July 1940. He resumed his career as an attorney for a short period,then became involved in company management. Eugène Frot died on 10 April 1983 in Château-Landon,Seine-et-Marne. [1]
International | |
---|---|
National | |
People |
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II.
Camille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council of Ministers.
Albert-Pierre Sarraut was a French Radical politician, twice Prime Minister during the Third Republic.
The Stavisky affair was a financial scandal in France in 1934, involving embezzler Alexandre Stavisky. The scandal had political ramifications for the Radical-Socialist government after it was revealed that Prime Minister Camille Chautemps had protected Stavisky, who died suddenly in mysterious circumstances.
The 6 February 1934 crisis was an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by multiple far-rightist leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the building used for the French National Assembly. The police shot and killed 17 people, nine of whom were far-right protesters. It was one of the major political crises during the Third Republic (1870–1940). Leftist Frenchmen claimed it was an attempt to organize a fascist coup d'état. According to historian Joel Colton, "The consensus among scholars is that there was no concerted or unified design to seize power and that the leagues lacked the coherence, unity, or leadership to accomplish such an end."
François de La Rocque was the leader of the French right-wing league the Croix de Feu from 1930 to 1936 before he formed the more moderate nationalist French Social Party (1936–1940), which has been described by several historians, such as René Rémond and Michel Winock, as a precursor of Gaullism.
The far-right leagues were several French far-right movements opposed to parliamentarism, which mainly dedicated themselves to military parades, street brawls, demonstrations and riots. The term ligue was often used in the 1930s to distinguish these political movements from parliamentary parties. After having appeared first at the end of the 19th century, during the Dreyfus affair, they became common in the 1920s and 1930s, and famously participated in the 6 February 1934 crisis and riots which overthrew the second Cartel des gauches, i.e. the center-left coalition government led by Édouard Daladier.
Henry Lémery was a politician from Martinique who served in the French National Assembly from 1914–1919 and the French Senate from 1920–1941. Lémery was briefly Minister of Justice in 1934. During World War II (1939–45) he was Colonial Secretary in the Vichy government for three months in 1940 before being dismissed.
Albert Rivière was a French tailor and moderate socialist politician. He was Minister of Pensions between 1936 and 1940, and was briefly Minister of Colonies in 1940.
Louis Marie Joseph Etienne Rollin was a French politician who was a minister in several cabinets in the period between the two world wars.
Léon Jean Martinaud-Déplat was a French lawyer and Radical politician who was a deputy in 1932–36 and in 1951–56. He was Minister of Justice in 1952–53 and then Minister of the Interior in 1953–54. He was violently anti-communist, and was opposed to granting autonomy or independence of the North African colonies. His hard-line views caused him to be expelled from his party in 1955, and he failed to be reelected the next year.
Marc Émile Rucart was a French journalist and Radical politician who was a deputy from 1928 to 1942. He alternated between the posts of Minister of Justice and Minister of Health from 1936 to 1940. Although he was not pro-feminist he introduced changes that gave greater opportunity to women. He was anti-racist, and after the initial defeat of France in World War II he did not support the Vichy government, but participated in the National Council of the Resistance and then in the first Provisional Consultative Assembly . After the war he was a senator from 1947 to 1958.
Léon Jean Jacques Baréty was a French politician who was briefly Minister of Industry and Commerce in 1940.
Charles Léon Claude Daniélou was a French politician who was Minister of the Merchant Marine in 1930–1931 and Minister of Health in 1932–1933).
Émile Lisbonne was a French lawyer and Radical politician. He was briefly Minister of Health in 1933, and again for a few days in 1934.
Albert Marc Chichery was a French politician who was briefly Minister of Commerce and Industry, then Minister of Agriculture and Food Supply, in June–July 1940.
Jean Jacques Raynaldy, mainly known as Eugène Raynaldy, was a French politician who was a deputy from 1919 to 1928 and a senator from 1930 to 1938. He was Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1924–25 and Minister of Justice in 1933–34.
Jean Marie Albin Édouard Valadier was a French lawyer, administrator and politician who was senator from 1928 to 1945, and was briefly Minister of Labor and Social Security in 1934.
Henri Roy was a French politician who was deputy for Loiret from 1906 to 1919 and senator for Loiret from 1920 to 1941. He was Minister of Public Works in 1934–35 and was briefly Minister of the Interior in 1940.
Max Bonnafous was a French sociologist who was Minister of Agriculture and Supplies from 1942 to 1944 in the Vichy government.