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Pierre Laval

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Pierre Laval (28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician and Prime Minister. While a socialist before the outbreak of World War One and the October Revolution of 1917 Russia, Laval stood as an independent to avoid the unpopularity of communism. Serving a total of four times as Prime Minister of France, the latter two periods were under the Vichy government during World War II. After the liberation of France and the defeat of Nazi Germany, Laval was convicted of high treason and, despite strong protest in court and in his then unpublished diaries, was executed by firing squad.

Career during the Third Republic

Laval was born in Châteldon in the Puy-de-Dôme département of the Auvergne region. He became an active socialist, and in 1903 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the SFIO (Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière - the French socialist party) to which he was re-elected three times. He earned a law degree, and practiced law in Paris from 1907.

Laval did not serve in World War I. During this period, his politics moved towards the political right. He was defeated in the first post-war election in 1919. In 1924, he became mayor of Aubervilliers, a town in the northern suburbs of Paris, and left the SFIO. Despite this, his power in national affairs continued to increase. In 1925, he first served in ministerial office, as Minister of Transportation under Painlevé. In 1926 he was Minister of Justice under Briand. In 1927, he was elected to the Senate, and again in 1936.

Laval held no offices in 1927-1929, but from 1930 to 1936 he was a prominent figure in most of the governments formed. He was Prime Minister from 27 January 1931 to 6 February 1932, and was named Time's 1931 Man of the Year. The February 6, 1934 riots organized by far-right leagues led to the toppling of the second Cartel des gauches (Left-Wing Cartel) which had came to power two years earlier. These extra-parliamentary leagues maintained contacts with some conservative politicians, among whom Laval and Philippe Pétain. After Louis Barthou's assassination, the now Minister of Colonies Laval succeeded to him in Gaston Doumergue's government, in October 1934, leading France's foreign policies until 1936. At this time, Laval was opposed to Germany, the "hereditary enemy" of France. He pursued anti-German alliances with Mussolini's Italy and Stalin's USSR. He met with Mussolini in Rome on 4 January 1935, leading to the signature of the Franco–Italian Agreement which gave Italy parts of the French Somaliland (now Djibouti) and allowed it a free hand in the Abyssinia Crisis, in exchange with support against any German aggression . In April 1935, Laval convinced Italy and Great Britain to join France in the Stresa Front against German ambitions in Austria. In June 1935, he became Prime Minister as well.

Also in 1935, Laval's daughter Josée Marie married René de Chambrun, son of Count Aldebert de Chambrun. (De Chambrun was a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette. René's mother, Clara Longworth de Chambrun, was the sister of Theodore Roosevelt's son-in-law.)

In October 1935, Laval and the British foreign minister, Samuel Hoare, proposed a "realpolitik" solution to the Abyssinia crisis. Leaked to the media in December, the Hoare-Laval Pact was widely denounced as appeasement to Mussolini. Laval was forced to resign on 22 January 1936, and was driven completely out of ministerial politics.

Laval returned to his business career, but soon had major political influence after he assembled an extensive media empire through acquisitions of newspapers and radio. The victory of the Popular Front in 1936 meant that Laval had a left-wing government as a target for his media.

Under Vichy France

After the defeat of France in June 1940, Laval's papers and radio stations played a prominent part in forcing the resignations of the Reynaud government and then supporting the new Vichy regime of Philippe Pétain. On 12 July 1940, Laval became Vice-Premier.

From July to December 1940, Laval's policy was active collaboration with Nazi Germany. He named Fernand de Brinon, a Nazi sympathizer, to lead the surrender negotiations with the Germans. He met Adolf Hitler in Montoire on 22 October 1940, and proposed an alliance between France and Nazi Germany. Two days later, he arranged the meeting between Pétain and Hitler in Montoire, where collaboration was solidified. Laval also delivered the Belgian Central Bank's gold to Germany, which Belgium had sent to France for protection. He ceded France's stake in the copper mines of Bor in Yugoslavia, which were the largest mines in Europe producing this strategic metal. He also proposed the return of the government to Paris, where it would be under more surveillance from the Germans.

In November 1940, at a meeting with Hermann Göring, Laval suggested a military alliance with Germany. He made plans for a joint reconquest of Chad, whose governor, Félix Eboué, had joined the Free French Forces. Some members of the government found him too radical, while Pétain worried about Laval's unpopularity and ambition. On 13 December 1940, Pétain removed Laval, replacing him with Flandin and then Darlan. Laval was briefly arrested, but Otto Abetz, the Reich's ambassador in France, had him quickly freed and moved to Paris, where he lived under German protection and continued his political works.

On 27 August 1941, Laval was injured in an assassination attempt by Paul Collette, a former member of the Croix-de-Feu. The attack occurred at a Légion des Volontaires Français (LVF) review. The LVF was an ultra-collaborationist militia which later became the SS Division Charlemagne. (Among those present at the review were Eugène Deloncle, the LVF's leader and former head of the terrorist group La Cagoule, Marcel Déat, founder of the Collaborationist Rassemblement national populaire (RNP), Fernand de Brinon, general delegate of the Vichy regime in occupied territories, Marc Chevallier, prefect of Seine-et-Oise, and the German plenipotentiary minister Schleier.) Laval soon recovered from the injury.

Laval was recalled to the Vichy government on 18 April 1942. This time he became Prime Minister and succeeded Darlan as the leading figure in the regime after Pétain himself. Laval was largely blamed for the increase in anti-Jewish activities and the decision to send French workers to Germany through la relève and later the Service du Travail Obligatoire. The creation of the Vichy Milice in January 1943 has also been ascribed to Laval. After the Allied invasion of France, the government moved from Vichy to Belfort and then, in August 1944, to Sigmaringen in Germany. (He appears as a character in Louis Ferdinand Céline's novel Castle to Castle, which is set largely at Sigmaringen.) In May 1945 Laval fled. He first went to Spain but was deported and ended up in Austria where he was handed over to the Allied forces.

Trial and execution

On 30 July 1945 Laval was handed over to the new French government. Charged with treason and violating state security, he was tried and found guilty, despite vigorously defending himself in the first part of his trial. He was sentenced to death on 9 October. After a failed attempt at suicide (the cyanide had lost its full potency), he was executed by firing squad at Fresnes prison, near Paris, half-unconscious and vomiting on 15 October 1945.

Parliamentary offices

  • 10/05/1914 - 07/12/1919 : Deputy of the Seine department
  • 11/05/1924 - 17/02/1927 : Deputy of the Seine - Not registered in any parliamentary group
  • Senator from 1927 to 1936 and from 1936 to 1944

Laval's First Government, 27 January 1931 - 14 January 1932

Laval's Second Government, 14 January - 20 February 1932

Laval's Third Ministry, 7 June 1935 - 24 January 1936

Changes

Laval's Fourth Ministry, 18 April 1942 - 20 August 1944

Changes

Notes

References

  • Man of the Year profile, Jan. 4, 1932
  • Article on the Laval treason trial, Oct. 15, 1945
  • Article on Laval's testimony in Petain's trial, Aug. 13, 1945
  • Laval, P. The Unpublished Diary of Pierre Laval, Falcon Press Ltd. London, 1948.



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