Guy Mollet

Background

Guy Mollet was born in Flers (Orne), Normandy, on January 2, 1905, the son of a weaver.

Education

He was educated at the lycéein Le Havre, largely through scholarships.

Career

Mollet became an instructor in English at the lycée in Arras. During World War II he was captured by the Germans in June 1940 and after his release seven months later became a leader of the resistance movement in Normandy under the name of Laboule.

In 1945 he was elected mayor of Arras on the Socialist ticket and in 1946 he was sent to the national assembly, holding both offices simultaneously thereafter. Mollet became secretary general of the Socialist Party in September 1946 and at the end of 1946 took a cabinet post as minister without portfolio in the Blum government.

In 1949 he became a French delegate to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and was several times elected to preside over that body. In the Pleven cabinet of July 1950 to March 1951, Mollet was minister in charge of relations with the Council of Europe, and in the succeeding Queuille cabinet he was one of the vice-premiers.

In 1956 Mollet formed an alliance with the Radical Socialist leader, Mendès-France, and accepted a bid to form a cabinet; he became premier on January 31, 1956. During his 16 months in office he weathered the Suez crisis and continued the suppression of the Algerian rebels. This latter policy entailed unpopular tax increases that forced his resignation on May 21, 1957. He returned to office as vice-premier to strengthen the Pflimlin cabinet in the last weeks of May 1958. Mollet sacrificed his leadership of the Socialist Party, which opposed the candidacy of General De Gaulle, by offering the general his support, and was one of the four state ministers in the first cabinet organized by De Gaulle in June 1958.

He resigned in January 1959 over a disagreement about the budget. Mollet supported FrançoisFrancois Mitterand in 1965 in the latter's unsuccessful bid for the presidency. At the same time Mollet was able to prevent a proposed alignment of the Socialists with the Christian Democrats.

In a "shadow cabinet" formed by the anti-Gaullist opposition in 1966, Mollet was assigned the role of foreign minister. From 1967 to 1969 he was vice-president of the coalition known as the Federation of the Left. In 1973 he was again elected mayor of Arras and deputy in the national assembly.

Achievements

• He led the French Section of the Workers' International party from 1946 to 1969 and was Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957.

References

• Guy Mollet : Itinéraire d'un socialiste controversé