Léon Martinaud-Deplat

Léon Jean Martinaud-Déplat
Martinaud-Déplat in 1932
Minister of Justice
In office 20 January 1952 – 28 June 1953
Preceded by	Edgar Faure
Succeeded by	Paul Ribeyre
Minister of the Interior
In office 28 June 1953 – 19 June 1954
Preceded by	Charles Brune
Succeeded by	François Mitterrand
Personal details
Born	Lyon, France
Died	Paris, France
Occupation	Lawyer

Léon Jean Martinaud-Déplat (9 August 1899 – 5 October 1969) was a French lawyer and Radical politician who was a deputy in 1932–36 and in 1951–56. He was Minister of Justice in 1952–53 and then Minister of the Interior in 1953–54. He was violently anti-communist, and was opposed to granting autonomy or independence of the North African colonies. His hard-line views caused him to be expelled from his party in 1955, and he failed to be reelected the next year.

Léon Jean Martinaud-Déplat was born in Lyon on 9 August 1899, the son of a teacher. His surname combines the surnames of his stepfather and his father. After his secondary education in Lyon he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Aix-en-Provence, where he obtained his license. He then joined the Paris Bar. He was president of the association of young advocates in 1925–26. He joined the Radical party, and in 1929 was appointed secretary-general of the executive committee of the Radical-Socialist Party. He was counted among the "young Turks" of the party.

Martinaud-Déplat was a deputy from 8 April 1932 to 31 May 1936, elected on the Radical Republican and Radical Socialist list. He won by a narrow margin in the second round of voting for the 2nd district of the 19th arrondissement of Paris. He joined the committees on Algeria, Colonies & Protectorate and on Commerce & Industry. On 30 January 1934 he was appointed under-secretary of state for the President of the Council in the short-lived cabinet of Édouard Daladier, which resigned on 6 February 1934. He ran for reelection in 1936 but was defeated. However, he remained among the party leaders. At the start of World War II (1939–45) he was appointed press director in the High Commission of Information headed by Jean Giraudoux. He retired from politics in 1940 during the German occupation of France.

After the Liberation of France Martinaud-Déplat worked to reorganize the Radical Party along the lines defined by Édouard Herriot. At the 34th congress of the party in Paris in July 1945 he defended private enterprise against excessive intervention by the state. He edited La Dépêche de Paris, the official journal of the Radical Party, then in 1947 edited the L'Information radicale socialiste, a journal funded by Émile Roche. In December 1948 he succeeded Henri Queuille as administrative secretary of the Radical Party. As effective leader of the party he committed it to playing a permanent role in government. He persistently demanded a return to the pre-war electoral system, opposed government interference in business and was violently anti-communist.