Vincent Auriol

Background

Vincent Auriol was born at Revel, Haute Garonne, Aug. 27, 1884.

Education

He studied at the University of Toulouse, where he received a doctorate in law.

During his student days he had joined the Socialist Party, and in 1909 he became editor of Le Midi socialiste.

Career

In 1914 he was elected to the chamber of deputies from the district of Muret and thereafter was regularly reelected. He was mayor of Muret and counselor-general of the Haute Garonne. From 1919 to 1936 Auriol served as secretary of the Socialist group in the national assembly and for a brief period in 1928-1929 replaced Léon Blum as leader of the French Socialists. Auriol has been regarded as an authority on economics and finance. He participated in the London Conference on German reparations in 1924, and was a member of the Caillaux delegation which discussed the settlement of the French war debt to the United States in 1925. He was one of the 80 representatives who voted against allowing Henri Pétain full power after the defeat of France in 1940. He was imprisoned at Pellevoisin, but was later released for reasons of health and interned for the duration of the war. On Oct. 17, 1943, he managed to leave France and go to London, where he offered his services to General Charles De Gaulle, leader of the Free French movement. He later served as a member of the consultative assembly and as chairman of the committee of the interior at Algiers, to which the Free French government-in-exile had moved. When it convened in Paris in November 1944, Auriol was elected to head the foreign affairs committee of the constituent assembly in October 1945. He became a minister without portfolio in the Free French cabinet of General De Gaulle in November 1945. Following the restoration of the elected French government at the end of World War II, Auriol became chairman of the first and second constituent assemblies and was elected speaker of both. He served as a delegate from France to the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in 1946. Auriol became president of the national assembly in December 1946 after the first elections under the new constitution in France. He was elected president of the French Republic, Jan. 16, 1947, for a seven-year term. In 1951 Auriol paid the first formal visit to the United States and Canada ever made by a president of the French Republic. He was succeeded in the presidency by René Coty on Jan. 16, 1954. In 1959 he resigned from the Socialist Party, after a membership of more than 50 years, in opposition to its leader, Guy Mollet. He is the author of Hier-Demain (2 vols. , 1945) and other books. He died in Paris on Jan. 1, 1966.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Jean Jaurès

    (Présenté par V. Auriol, Onopengesneden / Uncut pages / Pa...)

  • Hier demain, par Vincent Auriol
  • Hier. Demain - Souvenirs, opinions (tome II) - Paix et démocratie (suite), la rénovation française
  • Journal du septennat, 1947-1954 (French Edition)

Connections

Father:

Jacques Antoine Auriol

Mother:

Angélique Virginie Durand

References

• ARCHIVES DE LA PRESIDENCE DE LA REPUBLIQUE : IVE REPUBLIQUE : VINCENT AURIOL, RENE COTY
• La France de Vincent Auriol
• Le roman vrai de la IVe république 1947-1953 La France de Vincent Auriol
• La France de vincent auriol 1947-1953
• Vincent Auriol Et Les Finances Publiques Du Front Populaire
• Vincent Auriol: Le pre?sident citoyen, 1884-1966 (French Edition)
• Vincent Auriol
• Votre Bel Aujourd'hui: Dernière Lettre à Monsieur Vincent Auriol, Président De La IVe République
• Lettre a M. Vincent Auriol, President De La Republique; Suivi De Touches