Vincent Auriol | |
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16th President of France Co-Prince of Andorra |
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In office 16 January 1947 – 16 January 1954 |
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Prime Ministers |
Léon Blum Paul Ramadier Robert Schuman André Marie Henri Queuille Georges Bidault René Pleven Edgar Faure Antoine Pinay René Mayer Joseph Laniel |
Preceded by | Léon Blum |
Succeeded by | René Coty |
President of the National Assembly Constituent until 27 November 1946 |
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In office 31 January 1946 – 21 January 1947 |
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Preceded by | Félix Gouin |
Succeeded by | Édouard Herriot |
Personal details | |
Born |
Revel, France |
August 27, 1884
Died | January 1, 1966 Paris, France |
(aged 81)
Political party | French Section of the Workers' International |
Alma mater | Toulouse 1 University Capitole |
Vincent Jules Auriol (French pronunciation: [vɛ̃sɑ̃ oʁjɔl]; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as the first president of the Fourth Republic from 1947 to 1954.
Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Auriol (1855—1933), a baker nicknamed Paul, and Angélique Virginie Durand (1862—1945). His great-grandmother, Anne Auriol, was a first cousin of English engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He earned a law degree at the Collège de Revel in 1904 and began his career as a lawyer in Toulouse. A committed socialist, Auriol co-founded the newspaper Le Midi Socialiste in 1908; he was head of the Association of Journalists in Toulouse at this time.
In 1914, Auriol entered the Chamber of Deputies as a Socialist Deputy for Muret, a position he retained until 1942. He also served as Mayor of Muret from 3 May 1925 to 17 January 1947, and as a member of the Conseil Général of Haute-Garonne from 1928 to 17 January 1947. In December 1920, after the breakup of the SFIO, Auriol refused to join the newly created SFIC and became one of the leaders of the new SFIO (the remaining socialist minority), along with Léon Blum.
Auriol became the party's leading spokesman on financial issues. He chaired the Finance Committee in the Chamber of Deputies from 1924-1926. His first cabinet post was as Minister of Finance under Léon Blum, in which Auriol controversially devalued the French franc 30% against the United States dollar, leading to capital flight and greater economic unease. This and Blum's proposals for greater regulatory restrictions on industry led to Blum's resignation as Premier; in the next government, led by Camille Chautemps, Auriol was made Minister of Justice, then Minister of Coordination of Services of the Presidency of the Council in Blum's short-lived government in 1938. Édouard Daladier's conservative–Radical government formed on 10 April 1938 returned Auriol to the Chamber of Deputies.