mĕrg`), 1863–1937, president of the French republic (1924–31). He entered national politics in 1893 as a Radical Socialist deputy and served in various cabinets before and during World War I. After serving as president he retired, but when the cabinet of Édouard Daladier Daladier, Édouard , 1884–1970, French politician, a Radical Socialist. After World War I he was a member of successive French cabinets. He was premier from Jan. to Oct., 1933, and again from Jan. to Feb...... Click the link for more information. fell in Feb., 1934, as a result of the Stavisky Affair Stavisky Affair , financial and political scandal that shook France in 1934. Serge Alexandre Stavisky, a swindler associated with the municipal pawnshop of Bayonne, sold huge quantities of worthless bonds.
..... Click the link for more information. , Doumergue was called on to be the "strong man" of France and to restore order. Premier of a coalition cabinet, he asked for extraordinary powers to meet the financial and political crises. These demands caused the fall of his cabinet, which was succeeded (Nov., 1934) by another under P. E. Flandin.
Doumergue, Gaston
Born Aug. 1, 1863, in Aigues-Vives; died there June 18, 1937. French statesman; Radical Socialist.
Doumergue received a legal education. He first entered the government in 1902 and served repeatedly as a minister. He was minister of colonies from 1902 to 1905, minister of commerce from 1906 to 1908, and minister of foreign affairs during World War I. In February 1917 he came to Petrograd as head of the French mission and insisted that the tsarist government continue the war. Doumergue was elected president of the Senate in 1923. He was president of France from 1924 to 1931. After the failure of the fascist putsch of Feb. 6, 1934, Doumergue formed a government of “national unity.” This government, which existed from February to November 1934, made an unsuccessful attempt to increase the authority of the executive branch by a reactionary constitutional reform. Doumergue became a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1934.
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