Great figure of the Third Republic,Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) was a French politician who had an exceptionally long political career. Wielding rhetoric with talent and not devoid of humour, the one who will be nicknamed “the Tiger” then “the Father of Victory” fiercely defended his vision of society, a combination of social justice and republican order. At the head of the government in the last phase of the First World War , he uncompromisingly pursues a policy of "winning the war to win the peace ". He will play a decisive role in the negotiations that will lead to the Treaty of Versailles.
Georges Clemenceau:radical and secular
Born on September 18, 1841 and from a family of doctors in Vendée, Georges Clemenceau naturally began medical studies, before moving towards law studies in Paris, where he befriends Claude Monet. He quickly turned to politics, influenced by the republican and progressive ideas of his father. Elected mayor of Montmartre (18th arrondissement of Paris), he tried in vain to mediate between the government of Versailles and the communards. After taking part in the fall of the Second Empire, he was elected deputy of the Seine to the National Assembly at the age of thirty (February 8, 1871).
With his talents as a speaker, he quickly earned a reputation as a "minister-killer" as well as the nickname "tiger". He notably contributed to the fall of Gambetta (1882) and Jules Ferry (1885), whose colonial policy he denounced in the name of the patriotism of “revenge” against Germany. Re-elected in 1876, 1877 and 1885, he became a prominent figure on the republican and anticlerical left, the core of the future radical party. He supported General Boulanger for some time, who was then considered to be very Republican, before turning away from him.
On June 4, 1888, in the middle of the legislative campaign and at a time when Boulangism was becoming a powerful and formidable political force, Georges Clemenceau addressed the deputies. Succeeding General Boulanger himself (who had just defended the constitutional revision) from the platform of the hemicycle, he pronounced a eulogy of the parliamentary system during which, summoning up a century of revolutionary and republican history, he justified the need to stand up to the anti-parliamentarianism of the nationalist currents which were then flourishing and threatening the stability of the Third Republic. He was re-elected deputy in 1889 against the Boulangist candidate Baillière.
Fiercely opposed to the colonialist policy of Jules Ferry, Clemenceau poses as a destroyer of misery:“ It is the state that must intervene directly to solve the problem of poverty, otherwise social war will break out on the first day ". It was he who ensured the election of Sadi Carnot against Jules Ferry as President of the Republic in 1887.
Panama scandal and Dreyfus affair
On January 29, 1891, in a famous speech, he made the apology of the revolution, not hesitating to do battle physically with the nationalist deputy Deroulède who accused him to serve the "International of the rich" (December 22, 1892) and to be an agent of England. These adversaries will not hesitate to implicate him in the Panama scandal to tarnish his reputation. He was defeated in the 1893 elections.
Excluded from Parliament for nine years, he seemed like a finished man, but he faced adversity with a stubbornness that ultimately saved him. He was despised but continued to be feared and the Dreyfus affair gave him the opportunity to come back to the fore. He engages with virulence and passion in this famous affair, denouncing its anti-Semitic character. He will be the author of the title of the famous article by Émile Zola "J'accuse,,,".
Georges Clemenceau first cop in France
In 1902 he was elected Senator for Var, a department he represented in the Assembly until 1920. He entered the government for the first time in March 1906, as a minister of the Interior (he proclaims himself "first cop in France"), then as President of the Council. A somewhat authoritarian Republican, he carried through the policy of separation of Church and State and showed himself determined to put an end to the movements of social unrest by force (wine crisis in the South, spring 1907; bloody incidents in Draveil- Vigneux and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, May and July 1908; postal strike, March 1909). Both supporters and opponents nicknamed him "the Tiger".
This policy sparked lively debate in the Chamber, where the incisive virulence of Clemenceau clashed with the warm eloquence of Jaures; it led to Clemenceau's break with the Socialists, without reconciling the President of the Council with the moderates, hostile to the income tax advocated by his Minister of Finance, Caillaux. Faced with violent social movements and an almost insurrectionary situation, he became an ardent defender of the republican order, even if it meant sending the troops and acquiring a reputation as "strikebreakers" which distanced him from part of the left.
Crossing the Desert
Outvoted in July 1909, Clemenceau began a "crossing the desert", devoting himself to journalism and travel. Although he has never been “revengeful”, he is worried about the threat posed to peace by Germany's aggressive foreign policy:“we want peace (…) But (… ) if war is imposed on us, we will be found ". At the beginning of 1914, he founded L’Homme libre which becomes, after the declaration of war, The Chained Man . This leaf earned him great popularity among fighters.
Having again become very popular because of his intransigent patriotism and his energetic action as president of the senatorial commission on the Army, he revived during the war the great Jacobin tradition by calling for all the sacrifices and all the rigors in view of victory.
Father Victory
On November 16, 1917, driven by his moral strength and his will to achieve a military victory over the Germany, he became Chairman of the Board again, at the call of Chairman Raymond Poincaré. He conducts war by concentrating the main powers in his hands; the country feels that it is governed with authority; the Command, the Parliament know that it is now necessary to reckon with the civil power, with the Old. His image as an energetic and smart man, a gruff fighter, both peasant and scholar, is popular.
With an indomitable will, he did not hesitate to bring the "defeatist" deputies Caillaux and Malvy to the High Court. Aged 76 and leaning on his cane, he tirelessly visits the trenches, tirelessly encouraging the soldiers.
In September 1918, the skepticism disappeared, the atmosphere was confident, because the victory of the Allies had been confirmed for several weeks. The President of the Council pays a vibrant tribute to the "magnificent hairy people", these "heroes with smiling stoicism who, at this very hour, ask us for nothing but the right to complete the grandiose work which crowns them for immortality. What do they want? What do we want ourselves? Fight, fight victoriously again and again, until the hour when the enemy will understand that there is no longer any possible compromise between crime and law. »
Clemenceau repeats that the French are doomed to continue the war until the guns have driven out the German:"We only seek peace and we just want it, solid, so that those to come may be saved from the abominations of the past. » « Go then, children of the fatherland, go complete the liberation of the peoples from the last fury of the Filthy force, go to victory without spot. »
During the final and terrible German offensive which reached Château-Thierry on June 2, 1918, he defended and covered before the Foch Chamber, the general-in-chief whom he appointed March 27, 1918. Soon, on July 18, the great offensive will force Germany into the armistice on November 11, 1918. He had the Germans sign, in the Hall of Mirrors, the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed on the defeated heavy repairs. Enjoying immense popularity, he is nicknamed "Father Victory".
Political retirement and death of Clemenceau
Clemenceau resigned in January 1920 and retired from political life after being bitterly defeated in the presidential election. He then isolated himself in a proud retirement, made great trips to the United States (1922), to Egypt, to India, and devoted his last years to literature:Demosthenes (1926) , Claude Monet (1929) , Greatness and Misery of a Victory (1930) .
A great figure of the Third Republic, Georges Clemenceau died in Paris on November 24, 1929, after occupying the political scene for nearly half a century:"For my funeral, I only want the bare minimum, that is to say me ". Even today, many politicians regularly refer to him. In 1961, his name was given to one of the two aircraft carriers of the French Navy.
Bibliography
- Clemenceau, biography of Michel Winock. Perrin, 2017
- The World According to Clémenceau:Murderous Formulas, Trait of Humor Speech and Prophecies, by JeanGarrigues. Text, 2017
- Clemenceau:Portrait of a free man, biography of Jean-noel Jeanneney. Editions Menges, 2014.