Background
Louis-Jean Malvy was born on 1 December 1875 in Figeac.
Louis-Jean Malvy was born on 1 December 1875 in Figeac.
By 1906 he had obtained a law degree and, after several unsuccessful attempts, won a seat as a Radical in the Chamber of Deputies.
In 1911/1912, by then a well-known anticlerical, his political career gathered momentum as he served as an undersecretary, first in the ministry of justice, then in the ministry of the interior. More important, he formed a close political alliance with Joseph Caillaux, minister of the interior and one of the commanding figures in the National Assembly. Association with Caillaux brought with it murmurs of being pro-German, since Caillaux had aroused a storm of protest by supposedly appeasing the Germans during the Agadir crisis of 1911/1912. In 1913, at the age of only thirty-eight, Malvy took office as minister of commerce. In March 1914, he assumed the powerful post of minister of the interior. Few felt he had attained such preeminence by his own talents. Rather Caillaux seemed to be working through Malvy, since a personal scandal Caillaux's wife had gunned down a newspaper editor who had been attacking her husband had momentarily neutralized Caillaux's ambitions.
At the outbreak of World War I, Minister of the Interior Malvy argued successfully against a roundup of subversive leaders. Some 3,000 syndicalists, pacifists, and the like had been named on Carnet B to be arrested upon news of war. As a Radical of the Left, Malvy had no taste for enforcing Carnet B. Moreover, in the first days of mobilization, even syndicalist leaders pledged not to interfere with the war effort. With the knowledge of his cabinet colleagues, Malvy embarked on another venture that contained some risk: subsidizing workers' newspapers that were willing to praise the war and rouse the working class to support the war effort. These measures seemed to bring substantial success. Strikes and labor unrest remained far below prewar expectations.
Governments came and went, but Malvy lingered on. When Aristide Briand replaced René Viviani at the head of the government in October 1915, Malvy found himself charged with being too lenient toward the workers to be an effective minister of the interior. He rejected the criticism and refused to take a different cabinet post. Backed by the Radical bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, he could not be ousted. But danger signs were evident even in 1915. Malvy had to halt some newspaper subsidies; publications like the infamous Bonnet rouge shifted their editorial line toward pacifism. Malvy came under direct attack by Georges Clemenceau in the summer of 1916. The so-called Tiger accused Malvy of tolerating the circulation of defeatist propaganda.
In 1917 criticism arrived frequently and heatedly. In the aftermath of General Robert Nivelles offensive, which Malvy had vigorously supported, the temper in the National Assembly shifted sharply. Mutinies crippled the army, industrial unrest was growing, and, in the east one saw the ominous example of the March Revolution in Russia. All this combined to erode Malvy's political support. Clemenceau continued to be critical; but his castigation of Malvy for excessive weakness toward strikers and dissenters did not alter Malvy's actions. In May 1917, the interior minister settled a wave of strikes in the metals industry through negotiations, even though some strikers had adopted "down with the war" as a slogan and some Nationalist leaders in the National Assembly called for repressive measures. Similarly, Malvy argued, albeit unsuccessfully, that French Socialist leaders should be permitted to attend the controversial international conference of Socialists supposed to meet in Stockholm. Such actions provoked controversy, but the worst blow to Malvy's position came in the summer when members of the Bonnet rouge staff were arrested and faced strong evidence of being in German pay.
Malvy was compelled to resign from Alexandre Ribot's cabinet (August 31, 1917), and Ribot soon fell himself. But the attacks in the National Assembly continued; the former interior minister was even accused of selling the plans of the Nivelle offensive to the enemy. When Clemenceau took office (November 1917), having pledged to crush defeatism, Malvy demanded to be tried by the National Assembly. Thus he apparently hoped to avoid the perilous alternative of a court-martial. After a lengthy investigation, Malvy was acquitted of treason in August 1918, but at the same time found guilty of criminal negligence in performing his duties. The penalty was five years in exile.
Malvy returned from Spain in 1924, succeeded in obtaining a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, and in March 1926 Briand recalled him to his wartime post of minister of the interior. The passage of time had not yet cooled tempers enough to permit this reminder of a bitter past to go unopposed. In the face of an uproar in the National Assembly, Malvy quickly stepped down. He continued to serve on the back benches until 1940, and he died in Paris, June 9,1949.