Chautemps, Camille

Chautemps, Camille (kämē`yə shōtäN`), 1885–1963, French politician. A Radical Socialist leader, he was premier in 1930 and in 1933–34, when the Stavisky Affair (in which he was not directly implicated) caused his resignation. A member of the first Popular Front cabinet of Socialists and Communists (1936–37) under Léon Blum, he headed the second, less radical, Popular Front cabinet (1937–38). Vice premier of the Vichy government, Chautemps came (1940) to the United States on a mission and did not return to France. He was subsequently expelled from the Radical party. In 1947 he was tried and convicted in absentia for collaborating with the Vichy regime. In 1954 his sentence was voided by the statute of limitations.

---

Chautemps, Camille

(born Feb. 1, 1885, Paris, France—died July 1, 1963, Washington, D.C., U.S.) French politician. A Radical Socialist, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919. He served in several cabinet posts and as premier of France in 1930, 1933–34, and 1937–38. As a cabinet member in 1940, he was among the first to suggest the surrender of France to Nazi Germany. He held a ministry in the Vichy government (see Vichy France) but broke with Philippe Petain's government after arriving in the U.S. on an official mission. He lived in the U.S. for much of the rest of his life. After World War II a French court convicted him in absentia for collaborating with the enemy.

---

Chautemps, Camille 

Born Feb. 1,1885, in Paris; died July 1, 1963, in Washington, D.C. French political and state figure. A leader of the Radical Socialist Party.

Between 1924 and 1940, Chautemps frequently held ministerial posts, including that of minister of internal affairs in 1924–25, 1925–26, 1930, and 1932–34. He served as premier four times: in 1930, 1933–34, 1937–38, and 1938. He supported the creation of the Popular Front; however, as head of the Popular Front government he prevented the implementation of the front’s program and contributed to the organization’s collapse.

As vice-premier from April 1938 to July 1940, Chautemps favored collaboration with the fascist aggressors. In November 1940, Pétain sent him on a diplomatic mission to the USA, where he chose to remain and retire from political activity. Because of his work for the Pétain government, Chautemps was sentenced in absentia in 1947 to five years’ imprisonment; in addition, his property was confiscated, and he was stripped of his rights as a citizen.