Guy Mollet
Guy Alcide Mollet (French pronunciation: [ɡi mɔlɛ]; 31 December 1905 – 3 October 1975) was a French politician. He led the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) from 1946 to 1969 and was the French Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957.
Guy Mollet
3 October 1975 (aged 69)
7th arrondissement of Paris, France
As Prime Minister, Mollet passed some significant domestic reforms and worked for European integration, proposing the Franco-British Union. He became unpopular in both the left and the right in the country for his international policy, especially during the Suez Crisis and the Algerian War.
Early life[edit]
He was born in Flers in Normandy, the son of a textile worker. He was educated in Le Havre and became an English teacher in Arras Grammar School.[1] Like most other teachers, he was an active member of the socialist SFIO, joining in 1923,[1] and in 1928 he became SFIO Secretary for the Pas-de-Calais département.
World War II[edit]
He joined the French Army in 1939 and was taken prisoner by the Germans. Released after seven months, he joined the French Resistance, where he was a captain,[1] in the Arras area and was three times arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo.
Early political career[edit]
In October 1945, Mollet was elected to the French National Assembly as a representative from Pas-de-Calais. In 1946, he became Secretary-General of the SFIO, standing against Daniel Mayer, the candidate supported by Léon Blum. He was also Mayor of Arras at this time.[1] Mollet represented the left-wing of the party, which feared the dissolution of the Socialist identity in a centrist alliance.
Although he retained Marxist terminology, he accepted the alliance with the centre and centre-right parties during the Fourth Republic, and his relations with the French Communist Party (PCF), which had become the largest left-wing party, were very poor: "the Communist Party is not on the left, but in the East".
Cabinet roles[edit]
He served as deputy prime minister in 1946, in Blum's government.[1]
From 1950 to 1951, he was Minister for European Relations in the government of the Radical René Pleven, and in 1951, he was deputy prime minister in the government of Henri Queuille.
Europe[edit]
Mollet supported a Western European Federation.[1] He represented France at the Council of Europe, and he was President of the Socialist Group on the council's Assembly.
Socialist international[edit]
From 1951 to 1969, he was vice-president of the Socialist International.
Legacy[edit]
He is one of the most controversial of the French Socialist leaders. His name is tied up with the SFIO decline and his repressive policy in Algeria. In French political language, the word molletisme equates to duplicity, making left-wing speeches to win elections and then implementing a conservative policy. French Socialist politicians currently prefer the moral authority of Pierre Mendès-France, even though he was not a member of the party.
His biography, by Denis Lefebvre, was called Guy Mollet: Le mal aimé ("Guy Mollet: The Unloved One").
Mollet Government
1 February 1956
13 June 1957
Republican Front (France) SFIO Radical Party (France) UDSR
Third Legislature of the Fourth Republic
The cabinet lasted from 1 February 1956 to 13 June 1957 and contained the following members:
: