Alexandre Millerand

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**Etienne Alexandre Millerand**, (born February 10, 1859) is a French statesman. Serving at various positions throughout his life, he most notably was President of the French Council of Ministers from January 20, 1920 to December 15, 1922. He currently serves as French Senator of Manche since April 15th, 1929.

Lawyer and journalist in the newspaper of Georges Clemenceau, he was involved in politics within the radicals. He was elected city councilor of Paris in 1884 and deputy of the Seine in 1885. Consistantly re-elected, he sat for 35 years in the Chamber of Deputies. During the Boulangist crisis, he moved away from the radicals, maintaining his desire to revise the constitutional laws of 1875. In the 1890s, he became the main figure of independent socialists, he advocated a reformist socialism. From 1899 to 1902, in the Waldeck-Rousseau government, he was Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts and Telegraphs: as the first socialist minister in France, he regulated and reduced working time, guaranteed a weekly rest in establishments dependent on the state, and had a project on workers' pensions passed. Judged as too moderate, he was excluded from the French Socialist Party in 1904. He was appointed Minister of Public Works in the first cabinet of Briand, in which he managed the consequences of the flood of the Seine of 1910 and a major strike of railway workers. He was then Minister of War in the first Poincaré government (1912-1913) and in the second Viviani government (1914-1915): he then returned to the liberal measures of his predecessors, supported General Joffre, and adopted resolutely nationalist views, thus breaking with the left. In 1919, he was appointed Commissioner General of the Republic in Strasbourg, and administered the attachment of Alsace-Lorraine to France.

After the victory in the 1919 legislative elections of the National Bloc, which brings together the center and right-wing parties wishing to continue the Sacred Union, he became President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs after Geoges Clemenceau becomes President of the Republic in 1920. With a large parliamentary majority, he is firm in the face of strikes and the emergence of communism while voting social measures. He managed the post-war turmoil that is shaking Europe, formed an anti-communist front with the old Allies through its international doctrine (Millerand doctrine), managed to stop the crisis of summer-winter 1920 by the Treaty of Aachen, and initiated the re-establishment of relations with the Vatican. After overcoming this crisis, Millerand attempted to support any anti-communist movement throughout Europe. He continues to maintain close diplomatic relations with the United States of America in spite of the return to an isolationist policy by the new President Hiram Johnson. During the Decennio Rosso, Millerand positions himself by supporting the fascist authors of the March of Rome, in which their failure precipitates Millerand in a political turmoil. He resigned December 15, 1922 to be replaced by a faithful man of President Clemenceau, Jules Jeanneney. Defending a constitutional revision aimed at strengthening the powers of the executive, he formed the National League Republic and allied himself with the far-right leagues and the parliamentary right. Following the legislative elections of 1924, despite the victory of the Cartel of the Left, he managed to climb to the second place and becomes a member of Parliament but does not find any governmental position after that. Subsequently, after his humiliation in the presidential election of January 1927, he lost his seat as deputies in the legislative elections of 1928. He manages to be elected Senator of Manche in 1929 and remains active politically but without being affiliated to any political party.

## Biography

### Early Life

His paternal family owned many lands, but lost his patrimony with the French Revolution. Originally from the small town of Roche-et-Raucourt (Haute-Saone), his paternal grandfather moved to Paris under the Restoration. On the maternal side, his family was of Jewish origins, which would be used by his anti-Semitic opponents during his later political career.

Born February 10, 1859 at 5 boulevard de Strasbourg, then located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, Étienne Alexandre Millerandc is the son of Jean-François Millerand (1826-1897), cloth merchant working rue de la Jussienne (3rd arrondissement) , and Mélanie Caen (born 1835) 5. The couple - which married in 1861 to the mayor of the 10th district of Paris and recognizes in the wake of their eldest son - has two other children: Amelie, born in 1862, and Martha, born in 1864 and died at the age of six years

### Educational training

He studied at Vanves High School, then at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he attended school for a few months, and at Henri-IV High School. After failing to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree, he became a Bachelor of Arts in 1877. A student at the Faculty of Law of Paris, where he worked with Raymond Poincaré, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in 1879 and a law degree in 1881.

From 1879 to 1880, he performed his military service at the 48th Line Regiment, based in Guingamp (Côtes-du-Nord). On this occasion he is described as 1.70 m tall, gray-eyed, with brown hair, with a low forehead, an oval face, and a round chin. Having graduated very well at the end of the year exam, he graduates with the rank of sergeant. Subsequently, he continued to become involved in the army and became a lieutenant in 1903.

### Family life

   In 1886, he became engaged to Laure Donnat, who was part of the family of Léon Donnat, a radical politician who had succeeded Alexandre Millerand on the Paris City Council. But this relationship does not please the entourage of Millerand, who finally breaks his engagement after two weeks.

He then begins an affair with Jeanne Levayer, daughter of a wood merchant from Sarthe and daughter-in-law of the politician Jehan de Bouteiller, of whom Alexandre Millerand is a close friend. In 1889, they moved in together and Millerand obtained the position of delegate of the General Administration of Public Assistance in Paris. They get married on October 26, 1898 at the town hall of the 9th district of Paris and have four children:

* Jean (1899-), industrialist

* Alice (1902-)

* Jacques (1904-), lawyer.

* Martha (1909-)

### Professional career

On May 16, 1881, a month after leaving university, he took an oath as an attorney at the Paris Court of Appeal. The following year, having ranked in the top twelve of the eloquent competition organized by the Paris Bar, he became Secretary of the Conference of Bar Lawyers and Vice-President of the Mole-Tocqueville Conference. Such functions are generally considered to be a prelude to entering Parliament.

With a cold eloquence similar to that of Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, he defended in the 1880s minors, correctional and assizes, following strikes in Montceau-les-Mines and Decazeville; he pleads for Ernest Roche. In their defense, he adopts a sociological approach, emphasizing their difficult living and working conditions, and obtains relatively mild verdicts. While he became a deputy, he continues to practice and has as clients such as the Socialists Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue, and Jean Baptiste Clément. He is also the lawyer of members of the Russian terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya appearing in correctional in Paris on July 5, 1890 and for some are condemned to three years of prison.

At the same time, in 1882 he began a career as a journalist by intermittently participating in the judicial column *La Justice*, where he was called by his political director, Georges Clemenceau, because of his resolute opposition to any compromise with the "opportunist" Republicans. After the election of Georges Laguerre as a deputy, Alexandre Millerand becomes the main contributor to the judicial chronicle of the newspaper, where he expresses his social and anticlerical convictions. He continued to write in the newspaper until 1889, dealing with more varied subjects after his election to the Chamber of Deputies. Subsequently, he collaborated with *La Voix* (1889), *La Petite Republique* (1893-1898) and *La Lanterne* (1898-1899). He also writes occasionally in the radical regional newspaper *Le Petit Troyen*.

After an interruption during his ministerial functions in the Waldeck-Rousseau government (1899-1902), he resumed his activity as a lawyer, but turned to business law, which allowed him to develop a new network and to be constituted a personal fortune at the outbreak of the Great War, his firm has eight employees.

## Political rise

### From radicalism to socialism

#### Militant and elected radical in Paris (1883-1885)

He expresses his first political considerations in 1870, when he is indignant at the acquittal of Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte and is enthusiastic about the proclamation of the Republic. His court pleadings and his writings at *La Justice* then place him among the leftmost radicals. In the early 1880s, he joined a radical movement, the Republican League for the revision of the Constitution, which he became one of the secretaries while Georges Clemenceau is vice-president.

Following the resignation of the opportunist deputy Pierre Marmottan, he was campaign secretary of the radical Jehan de Bouteiller in the May 1883 partial legislative election in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. But the radical candidate is implicated in financial scandals and faces the second round of a dissident candidacy, which Alexander Millerand tries to discredit. Jehan de Bouteiller is finally ahead of 37 votes by the conservative Louis Calla. This election campaign, however, allows Millerand to gain notoriety. Subsequently, he campaigned for municipal autonomy in various districts of Paris and chairs the Republican Youth Union of Paris.

He ran in the 1884 municipal elections to represent the district of La Muette, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. In his program, entitled "justice and freedom", he calls for the return of the office of mayor of Paris and the strengthening of local public services (better distribution of water, extension of ways and means of communication, reorganization of the assistance improvement of vocational education, construction of social housing). In the second round of voting, May 11, 1884, he won with 51.6% of the vote against the outgoing Conservative Councilman Paul Leon Aclocque.

Benjamin of the Paris City Council at age 25, he sits in the majority group of the Autonomy communal, which opposes the prefect of the Seine, and integrates the office of the council as secretary. With the main subject of intervention teaching, he advocates for public funding of communal schools and for the creation of a primary school for girls. It also proposes the launch of bakeries cooperatives to allow the modest classes to have access to the bread, supports measures in favor of the small trade and makes vote the grant of a grant of 12 000 francs at the faculty of letters of Paris for the creation of a history course of the French Revolution. On several occasions, his interventions are judged outside the municipal perimeter by the prefect of the Seine, Eugène Poubelle.

#### First term in the Chamber (1885-1889)

In parallel with his mandate as a city councilor, Alexandre Millerand continues to be involved at the national level, particularly with his editorials in *La Justice*. In view of the legislative elections of 1885, he decided to run only in the capital, while multiple candidatures are possible. Candidate on three lists Republicans in the department of the Seine, he retired at the end of the first round because of the good scores obtained by conservative candidates, and calls for the union of Republicans.

Six deputies elected in several departments at the same time having decided not to sit for the Seine, partial legislative elections are organized two months later. Leading a radical republican list, Alexandre Millerand came first in the first round, then in third place in the second round, on December 27, 1885. At age 26, he was elected a member of the Seine and his list won the six seats at stake. He then resigns from the Paris City Council, where the radical Leon Donnat replaces him after a partial municipal.

In the Chamber of Deputies, he decided to sit on the benches of the group of the Far Left, which is composed of radical deputies. He adopts very divisive positions and attacks opportunist governments, which he accuses of collusion with the right. In his first speech of general policy, May 31, 1887, he stands in opposition to the government presented by Maurice Rouvier, whom he accuses of betraying the majority obtained by the left in the legislative elections of 1885. Until the scandal of the decorations on the other hand, he is kind to the President of the Republic, Jules Grevy, yet a supporter of the Rouvier Ministry. For the presidential election of 1887, to which the moderate Jules Ferry, who is his privileged target in the Chamber and in Justice, presents himself for the candidacy of Charles Floquet; after the renunciation of this one, Alexandre Millerand finally votes for Sadi Carnot.

In the continuity of his activity as a lawyer, he is interested in prison issues, criticizing pretrial detention and pleading for parole as well as for the separation of detainees according to their dangerousness. He votes in favor of the "law of exile", which prohibits the stay in France family members who reigned over the country. A supporter of the secularization of all schools, he tabled in January 1887 an amendment to exclude chaplains, pastors and rabbis from high schools: the House rejected his proposal by 320 votes to 210. In the Vierzon miners' strikes, he criticized *"The awkward intervention of the authorities"* who proceeded to the arrest of strikers, drawing a parallel with the situation under the Second Empire. In April 1887, he was elected to the Budget Committee, but was not given responsibility because of his left-wing stance.

#### Distancing from the radicals (1889-1892)

After having supported him, notably by supporting his action at the War Ministry and his project of constitutional revision, Alexandre Millerand disavowed General Boulanger when he approached the Bonapartists, writing that "the exaltation of a man is the worse madness". To counter the progress of Boulangisme, he called for a reform of the constitutional laws and voted against the reinstatement of the district ballot. It appears more intransigent than most radicals, who are ready to get closer to the opportunists and make compromises on their program to "save the Republic". Alexander Millerand is opposed to measures reducing the freedom of the press and any exceptional justice, voting against the prosecution of three deputies and Boulangists abstaining on those for the general. At the end of 1887, he joined the small parliamentary group of Republicans-Socialists, newly created by socialists in rupture with the radicals, before returning to the group of the Far Left in April 1888 because judging unclear position of his group on boulangisme.

In a public meeting held at Mâcon on May 10, 1889, Alexandre Millerand expresses these divergent positions, which distances him from Clemenceau. The following month, the deputy from the Seine participated in the launching of a republican review committee defending the idea of ​​a constituent assembly. On the subject of this initiative, which is perceived by several of its allies as close to the positions of General Boulanger, Millerand confides that he wishes to "use the revisionist movement as a derivative to Boulangisme". He left shortly after Justice and founds the newspaper *La Voix*, which appears from August to November 1889. While many radicals give up trying to change institutions, Alexander Millerand begins to move closer to the republican-socialist movement. In the general elections of 1889, which take place in the district ballot, he came under the radical-revisionist label in the first constituency of the 12th arrondissement of Paris (neighborhoods of Bercy and Quinze-Vingts), whose electorate is more popular than that of its former district of La Muette. In the second round of voting, after the withdrawal of other Republican candidates, he wins with 56% of the votes against the candidate Boulanger.

From the beginning of the 1890s, once the threat of Boulangist dismissed and unsuccessfully attempted to take the lead of the radical current to direct more left, Alexander Millerand affirms socialism. It is the shooting of Fourmies, which makes nine dead among demonstrators claiming the day of eight hours, which marks its rocking in the socialist camp: as a result of this repression, it claims without success a parliamentary commission of inquiry and makes campaign for the candidacy for deputation in Lille of Paul Lafargue, then imprisoned for having encouraged the workers to protest at the end of a lawsuit during which Alexandre Millerand pleaded. At the same time, after the commercial failure of *La Voix*, Alexandre Millerand joined *La Petite République*, where he became a major editor and became the editor.

#### Principal leader of the independent socialists (1892-1899)

Refusing to adhere to any political formation, he quickly took the lead of the independent socialists and defended a reformist socialism, quite far from that advocated by the Marxists. In view of the legislative elections of 1893, during which he seeks a new mandate in the first constituency of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, he only once uses the term "socialist" in his profession of faith, which leads the administration to classify it again among the radical socialist candidates. At the end of the first ballot, he is re-elected with 77% of the votes cast. In the middle-two-rounds, he gives instructions to socialist candidates having arrived behind other Republicans to withdraw to block the right.

During the Sixth Legislature, he voted against villainous laws and campaigned for the liberation of Socialist Alfred Léon Gérault-Richard, imprisoned under these laws when he was elected deputy. He poses as a fierce opponent of President Jean Casimir-Perier, whom he disapproves of activism at the Elysee and he describes as "proud offshoot of the great legal bandits who have robbed our ancestors by usury." In January 1895, he contributed to the fall of the third Dupuy cabinet, which led to the resignation of Casimir-Perier, and vote for the radical Henri Brisson during the presidential election that follows. He is then benevolent towards the Bourgeois government, composed only of radicals, and supports the minister Paul Doumer in his will to introduce the income tax. During the decade, his recurrent criticisms of opportunists led him to participate in several duels.

With René Viviani, he founded in 1893 the Republican Socialist Federation of the Seine. Alongside Jean Jaurès, he asserts himself as the main figure of socialism in France. Encouraged by their rise to electoral power, the various socialist currents envisage an attempt at a common program. For two years, Alexandre Millerand worked for their reunification and helped the Chamber to form a single group of about fifty members. On May 30, 1896, after the good scores of the Socialist candidates in the municipal elections, he speaks at a grand banquet organized at the Porte Dorée: in this speech, said Saint-Mandé, he calls for the union of Socialists and the development of a reformist common agenda. This defense of a republican socialism arouses the anxiety of the opportunists, who fear the rallying of the middle classes to its cause.

If he receives the support of Jaurès, Alexander Millerand is not unanimous among the Socialists. Jean Allemane accuses him of being skeptical about the general strike issue, while Edouard Vaillant opposes the withdrawal in the second round of socialist candidates arrived behind another Republican. At the International Socialist Congress of Workers and Labor Workers' Chambers of 1896, Millerand and his supporters were outvoted by the French delegation. Moving away from collectivism and defending the Franco-Russian alliance, he was then suspected by some of his allies of wanting to seduce the middle classes and to make a rapprochement with the republicans located on the far right of the political spectrum. He gradually loses ascendancy among independent socialists in favor of Jaurès and does not hesitate to show his hostility towards the revolutionary socialists.

In the legislative elections of 1898, the only candidate in his Paris constituency, he was re-elected in the first round with 89% of voters and 72% of voters. With the defeats of Jules Guesde and Jaurès, Millerand strengthens his position at the head of parliamentary socialism. During the first meeting of the Socialist Group following the elections, he adopted the proposals made in his speech of Saint-Mandé. He left *La Petite République* in the wake, considering he no longer had enough freedom in the drafting of his editorials, and succeeds Aristide Briand as editor of *La Lanterne*, where he defends a patriotic socialism. By calling for the gathering of republican forces from the beginning of the year 1899, Alexander Millerand seems to set aside the project of the union of socialists to favor a dialogue with the radicals.

#### Minister in the Waldeck-Rousseau Government (1899-1902)

On June 23, 1899, after the agreement in principle of the Socialist Group of the House to a ministerial participation, he joined the Waldeck-Rousseau government as Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts and Telegraphs. This is the first appointment of a socialist personality in a government under the Third Republic. Although Millerand states that his decision does not engage the collective responsibility of the Socialists, several of his allies consider this participation in a "bourgeois government" as contrary to the class struggle and denounce the appointment to the Ministry of War of General Galliffet nicknamed "the executioner of the Commune". The first Congress of French Socialist Organizations, held in December 1899 in the Japy Room, however, allows the principle of government participation in case of "exceptional circumstances".

If the scope of its ministerial department includes industry, internal trade, customs, merchant marine, technical, industrial and commercial education or exhibitions, it is on the condition of the workers that Alexander Millerand concentrates his action. In the context of fears of an increase in social conflicts, it broadens the scope of the Labor Office, sets up a ministerial directorate responsible for social insurance and social security, facilitates workers' access to assistant labor inspectors and the establishment of industrial tribunals. To avoid parliamentary debates with uncertain outcome, it takes a series of decrees and circulars, particularly to strengthen the missions of the labor inspectorate or the scope of the law on compensation of accidents at work and that on the health and safety of workers in industry.

It gives its name to the law of March 30, 1900, which harmonizes the maximum working time by establishing the principle of ten hours per day (against generally twelve hours before). Millerand argues that "the countries with the shortest working day are also those where the labor of the worker reaches its highest degree of productivity". It manages to obtain the support of the Senate, deemed favorable to the employers, and alienates the Socialists because of the non-application of the text to all sectors, the modalities of its entry into force (temporary increase from ten to eleven hours of the working day for children) and the lack of financial compensation resulting from the reduction of working time. Within its direct sphere of competence, the Minister of Commerce fixes at eight hours the daily hours of work in most sectors of the posts and telegraphs and authorizes the creation of a National Union of the workers. In state-dependent institutions, it sets a weekly rest period and creates a quota to limit the employment of foreigners.

Many of his other initiatives result in setbacks or failures. If unions become owners of the Paris labor exchange and the number of unionized employees increases significantly between 1899 and 1902, the "Waldeck-Rousseau-Millerand" bill to grant civil union capacity does not lead to Parliament. Its "local labor councils" - composed of as many employers as employees and competent in trade union agreements and conflict resolution - aroused the opposition of employers and the indifference of unions, which will quickly lead to their fall into disuse. In addition, the moderate wing of the majority led him to lower his ambitions for his draft law on workers' pensions and to abandon the one on mandatory state arbitration in the event of a strike. More and more numerous over time, his compromises continue to distance him from the elected Socialists.

Alexandre Millerand is actively involved in the Dreyfus affair. A contributor to the anti-*dreyfusard* *L'Éclair* newspaper, he had at first been indifferent to the affair, which he considered a bourgeois question. He finally joined the Dreyfusard camp in the summer of 1898, emphasizing more the failure of the judicial system than the treatment of the former soldier. In September 1899, he convinced Mathieu Dreyfus, brother of the convict, to ask the presidential pardon rather than file an appeal for review. While Millerand threatens to resign if he does not succeed, President Emile Loubet gives his pardon to Alfred Dreyfus. Subsequently, Mathieu Dreyfus consider to hire him as a lawyer for his brother.

During the campaign for the legislative elections of 1902, while the left-wing socialists blame him for being close with the patronat and his participation in the reception ceremony of Tsar Nicholas II at the end of the year 1901, Alexander Millerand continues to be criticized by the right, who holds him responsible for the strike movement of 1899. In the second round legislative, he manages to be re-elected against a nationalist candidate, but with 51.5% of the vote, a much smaller majority than in previous elections. The following month, in June 1902, he was not reappointed to the government formed by Émile Combes, who did not want a socialist personality in his ministry.

### From socialism to rapprochement with the center right

#### Exclusion of the PSF and rapprochement of the moderates (1902-1909)

If figures such as Jean Jaurès and Aristide Briand defend the Minister of Trade as part of the alliance with the radicals, this is not the case of the Marxist and Blanquist currents - respectively led by Jules Guesde and Édouard Vaillant - which break with the other socialists and meet in 1901 within the Revolutionary Socialist Unity (USR), renamed Socialist Party of France (PSdF) the following year. In March 1902, Alexandre Millerand participates with Jaures at the launch of the French Socialist Party (PSF), which includes supporters of the "Republican defense" advocated by Waldeck-Rousseau.

If this quarrel around "ministeralism" ends with the end of the Waldeck-Rousseau government, Alexander Millerand continues to provoke controversy by supporting nationalist measures and opposing the removal of the budget of worship. In 1903, he was reprimanded by the PSF and narrowly escaped exclusion at the Bordeaux Congress: while Pierre Renaudel, Gustave Hervé and more than half of the federations demanded his departure, Jaurès' support was decisive. However, Millerand - who has been chairman of the welfare and social welfare commission since June 1902 - continues to criticize the Combes government for refusing to pass social laws, and is against a socialist agenda aimed at condemning sending troops to strike fields. In January 1904, despite his rallying to the principle of separation of church and state, he was excluded from the PSF.

He broke with Jaurès on the issue of support for the ministry of Emile Combes, of which he is a fierce adversary, and now tries to satisfy both employees and employers: he is in favor of relaxing the law of ten hours and vote against retirement at age 60, while continuing to defend workers' pensions or the civil capacity of unions. In the presidential election of 1906, he preferred Paul Doumer, supported by the right, to Armand Fallières, candidate of the Bloc des gauches. In view of the legislative elections of 1906, the socialist federation of Brittany proposes to him to be candidate in Nantes, before withdrawing his offer on pressure of Jaurès. During the campaign, Millerand agrees to support right-wing candidates claiming his name. Mainly opposed to Paul Lafargue, candidate of the unified socialists, he was reelected in the first round, with 55% of the votes, in the 12th district of Paris.

Sitting in the new parliamentary group of Independent Socialists, he is regularly invited to take over the presidency of the Council or at least find a ministerial function. Wishing the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, he refuses to integrate the Clemenceau government as Minister of Justice and toppled into opposition. At the same time, he assumes the presidency of the Labor Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, that of the Board of Directors of the Social Museum, as well as the presidency of the French Association for the Legal Protection of Workers and the of the Mascuraud committee, which is close to employers. In 1907, he joined the Independent Socialist Party (PSI), but he was not involved in the party, too much left in his opinion.

#### Minister of Public Works of the Briand Government (1909-1910)

In the government formed by the independent socialist Aristide Briand July 24, 1909, he obtains the portfolio of Public Works, Posts and Telegraphs. As in Commerce a few years earlier, he is reorganizing his administration by bringing together many departments of the ministry in a few directions. In P&T, it suppresses the under-secretary of state, accelerates the distribution of mail and continues the development of the telegraph. On the social level, it helps to restore a particularly degraded climate, by reinstating most of the postal workers dismissed by his predecessor during the strikes of the spring of 1909, and promotes a better representation of the agents and workers within the management bodies. To make France more attractive, it decided to set up the National Tourist Office (ONT), an innovative measure at the global level.

In charge of Transport, he sees his action strongly contested by Jean Jaurès, who considers that the convention on the purchase of Western Railways by the administration is excessively unfavorable to the latter. Having become reluctant to nationalize, Millerand faces the reluctance of many parliamentarians for his plans for concessions of coal and iron mines to private companies. After the great flood of the Seine of 1910, for the prevention and the management of which it is criticized, it launches the construction of works of art in order to limit the consequences of a new catastrophe of this type. To combat the decline of the merchant navy, it gives trading ports a status of autonomy from the state.

In parliamentary debates on the voting method for the legislative elections of 1910, Aristide Briand invoked an insufficient time to replace the district polls by the list system, of which the Minister of Public Works is a historical supporter. While the head of government engages his responsibility on this question, Millerand abstains, a situation having so far occurred only twice under the Third Republic. Tensions between the President of the Council and Alexander Millerand continued to grow, especially with the strike of October 1910, during which the second reproaches the first not to have been sufficiently open to negotiations.

The Minister of Public Works approaches the elections of 1910 in a delicate situation: already weakened by the critics on its management of the great flood, it is also at the heart of a scandal after the arrest of Edmond Duez, liquidator of the goods of the religious congregations he defended as a lawyer with substantial fees. Representing himself as Republican-Socialist in his Paris constituency, he benefits after the first round of the decision of the SFIO to withdraw support for his candidate. In the second round, he won with 48% of the votes on the nationalist candidate he had already faced in 1902 (42%).

In October 1910, a great strike of railway workers broke out so that the government generalized the minimum wage of five francs a day. Faced with the threat of a general strike, the President of the Council pronounces the requisition of the staff. The Minister of Public Works characterized the movement as "criminal" because of the public service nature of rail transportation. In the wake, wanting to form a new government, Aristide Briand decides to resign. He wants Alexander Millerand to be part of his new cabinet to facilitate the adoption of his project banning strikes in public services, but Millerand considers this measure too radical, preferring the introduction of mandatory arbitration of the State and refuses to be reappointed. He abstains on the vote of confidence.

First Ministry of War and Conservative Turn (1911-1914)

Once out of the Briand government, Alexander Millerand works to form a party to regroup the personalities who refuse to join the SFIO, the Radical Party or the Democratic Republican Alliance. Thus, with figures like Paul Painlevé, René Viviani and Alexandre Zévaès, he participated in July 1911 in the launch of the Republican-Socialist Party (PRS), which is divided between "radicalizers" and "socializing". Holding a capital-labor alliance and "class solidarity" rather than class struggle, Millerand is closer to the former. He quickly distanced himself from the PRS, not taking part in the first congress of the latter, in December 1911. He favored the Republican-Socialist group of the House, where he continued to plead for the list-voting in the Chamber of Deputies. special committee to study the reform of the voting system in the parliamentary elections.

After the resignation of the Caillaux ministry, Alexander Millerand returns to the government becoming Minister of War in the cabinet formed by Raymond Poincaré January 14, 1912. This appointment is welcomed by nationalists like Charles Peguy, who is a close Millerand since the beginning of the 1900s. The main collaborators of the new minister are General Bourdériat and, once again, Raoul Persil. Upon taking office, to avoid any duality, Millerand removes the function of Chief of Staff of the army of General Dubail to retain only that of Chief of General Staff, which is exercised by General Joffre; this decision is criticized by General Pédoya, who sees excessive concentration of power in the hands of one man. In line with his opposition to the Combes government, Millerand puts an end to the practice of "cards of denunciation".

Raymond Poincaré gives his Minister of War a great deal of freedom of action. Worried about the reinforcement of the German military apparatus, Alexander Millerand increases the budget of the army and strengthens the French manpower by several means: revival of the private companies of military preparation, which act upstream of the incorporation, financial advantages granted to the soldiers of Overseas France agreeing to extend their engagement, etc. The minister considers it useless to carry military service for two to three years, as defended by the deputie Émile Driant, but he seems to change his mind on this issue at the end of 1912. In terms of equipment, he is committed to developing aeronautics, which he presents as the fifth military weapon, by passing the organizing law of March 29, 1912, and by launching a public subscription.

Taking the opposite of the measures adopted in the two years preceding his arrival at the ministry, he defends the military courts, restores the right of sanction on the part of the non-commissioned officers and corporals, hardens the system of the permissions. To fight against the antimilitarism, it extends the field of application of *Carnet B* and makes pass the law "Millerand-Berry" (or "law of the excluded"), which strengthens the repression towards the detractors of the army, to the great damn socialists. In September 1912, in order to reduce the influence of the political sphere in the army, he published a circular proscribing the membership of the military to the unions or associations law of 1901, leading to a clash with General André. To questions from the President of the Council about an alleged lack of interest granted to Verdun, Millerand replies that he refuses to abandon other sites in the East of the country.

The nationalist policy he leads to the government continues to widen the divide separating him from the left. His decision to reinstate Colonel Paty de Clam, in charge of the preliminary investigation of the Dreyfus affair, earned him new accusations of anti-republicanism and calls for resignation. Then candidate for the presidential election, Raymond Poincaré asks him to resign on January 12, 1913. Returned simple deputy, Alexander Millerand supports the candidacy of Raymond Poincaré at the Elysee Palace, criticizes the evolution on the left of the radicals and rallies to the law Three years. In view of the legislative elections of 1914, he joined the centrist coalition of the Left Federation, of which he became one of the vice-presidents128. Millerand is reelected deputy in the first round with 56% of the votes against a socialist, but the agreements of withdrawal between radicals and socialists allow the left to emerge victorious in the second round.

#### New passage at the Ministry of War (1914-1915)

On August 26, 1914, during the formation of the second Viviani government, soon after the beginning of the world war, Alexander Millerand returned to the War Ministry, while he asked for the portfolio of Foreign Affairs again. The following month, as part of the departure of the government for Bordeaux, his ministry moved into the faculty of letters of the city. For security reasons, he stayed there until January 1915, a month longer than the rest of the executive.

Intermediate between the General Headquarters and the political power, Alexander Millerand leaves the army a great freedom of action, being essentially the relay of the will of General Joffre. In private, President Poincaré evokes a "military dictatorship". In September 1914, Millerand satisfied the generalissimo's request to replace the war councils by special, restricted, non-investigative war councils rendering non-appealable decisions. Joffre also gets the reinforcement of censorship, which leads to a temporary suspension of the publication of the newspaper Clemenceau, *L'Homme Libre*. Nevertheless, especially at the end of the ministry, the generalissimo must repeatedly bow, especially during the Battle of the Dardanelles, Millerand seeking to thwart the accusations of passivity against him.

At the beginning of the conflict, while France lacks weapons and manpower, the Minister of War favors weapons of 75 mm, asks private companies to provide 100,000 shells per day and reminds workers of the front to ensure the industrial effort. But while production proves insufficient and its management is questioned by a report by Senator Raphael Millies-Lacroix, Alexander Millerand refuses to take sanctions against industrialists and tells the Senate that it was necessary to "sacrifice the quality In favor of "quantity". With the emergence of trench warfare, he opted for the development of heavy armament, but his orders are considered late and insufficient. Although its action in aeronautics organization is also criticized, the situation is considered satisfactory for the production of rifles.

Alexander Millerand travels little to the combat zones, preferring to sign many circulars from Paris. To increase the number of troops on the front line, he reinforced the controls on the "ambushes", reviewed the status of reformed and established commissions of three doctors in place of the revision councils, which he considered too heavy. It also reduces the time between the call of an age class and its effective mobilization, and keeps in service the classes 1887 and 1888. While the conditions of incorporation of the class 1915 in terms of logistics are blamed, it takes measures in favor of the combatants (easing of the system of the permissions, increase of the balances, possibility of evolution without condition of seniority, etc.).

During his first months in government, he did not have to justify himself before the parliamentary committees because of the adjournment of the chambers. Subsequently, it seeks to reduce the control of Parliament, which intends to exercise its prerogatives of scrutiny and control on almost all issues related to the armies. Some parliamentarians are protesting that the contracts awarded by the Ministry of War, particularly in terms of supplies, are carried out in a certain hurry and lead to prices they consider too high. On the religious question, under the pressure of socialists and radicals, Millerand must reconsider his decision to allow chapels in hospitals and moderate the circular affecting members of the clergy in the health service of armies, which was seen as a special treatment granted to ecclesiastics. Also mistreated within the Council of Ministers, the Minister of War is imposed the return of under-secretaries of State.

On 29 October 1915, following the resignation of the Viviani Ministry, Aristide Briand formed a government of which Alexandre Millerand was not a member. Criticized by left-wing figures for his unwavering support for Joffre, the role of General Baquet at his side, the arms crisis and his lack of transparency, Millerand sees his action hailed by the centrist and right-wing press. In *Le Figaro*, Alfred Capus writes: "*For more than a year, Mr. Millerand has handled this formidable organization of national defense with a force, a precision, a dedication that all patriots will eternally appreciate.*" For his part, Jacques Bainville suggests the idea of a directoire Joffre-Delcasse-Millerand. André Tardieu's 1917 report on heavy artillery will highlight Millerand's efforts in this area.

#### Rest of the conflict and general commissariat in Strasbourg (1915-1920)

After leaving the government, while resuming his career as a lawyer, Alexander Millerand continues to invest in the political debate. From October 1916, he held a series of "patriotic conferences", in which he defended the Sacred Union and the war effort, supporting the loans of the National Defense and attacking the socialist leitmotif "peace without annexation or compensation ". At the end of 1917, partisan of a strong man, he pronounced for the accession of Georges Clemenceau at the head of the government. In parallel, he is elected Chairman of the Board of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, President of the French Maritime League and a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

In March 1919, after trying to settle the question of the return of Alsace-Lorraine only from Paris, Georges Clemenceau named Alexander Millerand - historical defender of the return of these territories in the French fold - to the post of Commissioner General of the Republic to Strasbourg. To reorganize the three former departments administratively, Millerand has important powers. As soon as he takes office, he has the Alsace and Lorraine higher council transferred from Paris to Strasbourg and reinforces the weight of local representatives. In a few months, German officials are all forced to leave their jobs. For the German population, estimated at 400,000 individuals, it conducts a study case by case by departmental commissions, which allow certain people to apply for French nationality.

As Alsace-Lorraine is not legally considered as French, it establishes a temporary administrative regime, which is quickly extended by invoking the difficulties of harmonization of legislation. Dedicated by the law of October 17, 1919, this special status has the stated aim of bringing Alsace and Moselle into the French legislative structures in a progressive way and not by means of an "assimilation" that can cause the rejection of local populations. *Le Petit Parisien* stresses that the Commissioner General approves the centralization policies led by Louis XIV and Napoleon I, but that he "believes that the time is not when such measures are needed, especially vis-à-vis provinces that have demonstrates an unshakable attachment to the country. "

Thus, while seeking to harmonize French and local legislation, Alexandre Millerand is keen to preserve the particularities of Alsace-Lorraine. Although many French standards and structures are making their comeback, it is decided to maintain the Concordat and the generous local social security system, which Millerand hopes to eventually extend to the entire territory. In economic matters, it is launching a vast plan for rebuilding infrastructure and facing major strikes in transport. On the fiscal side, most indirect levies are harmonized, but the favorable rates of inheritance taxes and direct taxes are retained.

During his ten-month general commissariat, he faces the Jacobinism of Clemenceau, including the question of the Concordat, the latter preferring recording papal bulls by the Council of State, rather than a local institution. Nevertheless, the management of Alexander Millerand is globally welcomed by both French parliamentarians and elected officials of Alsace and Moselle, including the left. He became President of the Council in January 1920 and was replaced by Gabriel Alapetite. A few months later, he will defend the creation of a "regional council of Alsace and Lorraine" to replace the higher council, but the opposition of the Parliament will lead him to privilege a simple advisory council.

Nourishing other ambitions than only Alsace-Lorraine, he ran for the November 1919 legislative elections in the colors of the National Bloc, a coalition claiming to be the continuation of the Sacred Union and ranging from moderate radicals to the Republican Federation and including even some nationalists. With the breakdown introduced by the new electoral law, Alexandre Millerand presents himself in the second sector of Paris (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 11th, 12th, 20th arrondissements), at the head of a list where several right-wing figures appear, including the nationalist Maurice Barrès in second place. While he is mainly campaigning on the economy and on the promise of strengthening the powers of the executive, he is the target of the SFIO, which accuses him of clericalism. In a favorable national context, the list conducted by Millerand comes first with eight elected, against three seats for the socialist list and one for a socialist dissident list. Under the twelfth legislature, he did not sit in any group.

## Central figure of executive power

### President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1920-1922)

#### Nomination

After the legislative elections of 1919, due to the advanced age of Clemenceau and the inexperience of André Tardieu, he appears as the best placed to form a new government. The outgoing Chairman of the Board writes: "*Mr. Millerand is certainly the designated representative of the majority of the House. [...] It is his policy, it is the alliances he has made that have triumphed in the country"*. After winning the presidential election of 1920, Clemenceau leaves the presidency of the Council.

Solicited by Poincaré, Alexandre Millerand formed on January 20 a cabinet in which he is also Minister of Foreign Affairs. His government is made up of 25 members (15 ministers and 10 secretaries of state), including several political novices, which is a first. He secures the support of Clemenceau by the appointment of the former military chief of staff of the previous government, General Mordacq at the Ministry of War. Not counting any leading personality, it includes many centrists, some radicals and only a member of the right group, which is the most important. This last characteristic explains why only 272 deputies vote the governmental agenda, 331 abstaining and 23 voting against. But in February, the decided to join the cabinet, which ensures a comfortable majority. On February 18, 1920, in accordance with custom, Alexander Millerand resigned to the new head of state, Georges Clemenceau, who immediately reappointed him. Millerand is then a second government, which has the only difference with the precedent of the addition of an under-secretary of state to liberated regions.

#### Domestic policy

In the continuity of his action in the Waldeck-Rousseau government, Alexandre Millerand intends to focus on social issues. He called for the concrete application of the eight-hour law, adopted the previous year, and passed texts aimed at improving the condition of miners and metalworkers. Against the will of the right, it puts in place one of its flagship proposals, the civil capacity of the unions, and authorizes for them the adhesion of women without the consent of the husband and the under 16 years without the parental authorization. Another of its proposals, compulsory arbitration in the event of a labor dispute - which prevents any strike before the award of the arbitration award - arouses opposition from the left but also from the right, and is applied in August 1921.

The president of the Council must manage several social movements supported by the CGT, radicalized by the advent of the Soviet, German regimes and the various European revolutions. In February 1920, he repressed a major rail workers' strike (arrests, measures of food restrictions, requisitioning of premises), which he made unpopular by presenting it as an obstacle to national recovery. As new strikes began in early May, he again adopted an attitude of firmness, overwhelmingly approved by the House. The CGT hardening its actions, the executive opens a judicial inquiry for the dissolution of the union and prohibits the strike at the officials. Millerand, however, refuses to attack the right to organize, reorganizes the railway system (with a greater presence of the state), grants bonuses to railway workers and expels foreigners suspected of revolutionary activity (preventing the arrival of some representatives of the Comintern in France at the Congress of Tours).

On the fiscal side, despite the contribution of war reparations and the exploitation of the Rhineland, the expenses incurred by reconstruction, compensation and contributions for Alsace-Lorraine lead to a real deficit of some 30 billion francs. To cope, Alexander Millerand advocates for loans from the United States of America and countries remained neutral during the conflict. The loans are launched but are not really contracted until the end of his government, but the Parliament intends to restore the balance (creation of a tax on the turnover, increase of the tax base of the schedular taxes on wages, etc.)

In the liberated and annexed regions, Millerand suffers a lack of popularity because of his initial desire to return to the law of April 17, 1919 and the slowness of the state action. The head of the government publicly acknowledges shortcomings, in particular problems of coordination between the Ministry of Finance and that of the liberated and occupied Regions, as well as delays in the delivery of debt claims to the victims and in the payment of compensation to the municipalities. In this context, it announces the launching of anonymous companies to house working families with the help of the State, accelerates the assessment of war damage and refuses to give a favorable response to the request of François-Marsal de reduce the budget of the liberated regions. In the continuity of his action at the general police station of the Republic, he manages directly with Gabriel Alapetite the questions related to Alsace-Lorraine that he extends to the Saar, newly annexed.

At the institutional level, the President of the Council seeks to return to the pre-war situation by abolishing the War Committee, which had legislative prerogatives, or by agreeing to be heard by the committees. However, it ensures the independence of the executive power vis-à-vis different parliamentary groups - unlike the practice of the early 1900s - and threat of resignation if it does not get the Senate, a favorable vote for the budget. He intends to amend the constitutional laws of 1875, but the strong personality of Georges Clemenceau prevents him from changing it and the geo-political context gives him a wide freedom of action.

#### Foreign politic

In addition to being the head of the government, Alexander Millerand serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the inter-allied conferences held abroad, Gustave Lhopiteau took over the presidency of the Council and Auguste Isaac the acting foreign minister.

Millerand considers the United Kingdom as France's main ally, although disagreements appear with Lloyd George, who is more flexible on the Turkish question. At the same time, he deplored the increasing isolationism of the United States, which denounced the preponderance of the "militarist party" in France, but managed to secure the loans contracted, but their payment would be more complicated. On the other hand, he agreed on many points with Belgium, with which France signed a military alliance, and Italy, after the departure of the President of the Council Francesco Saverio Nitti.

In his famous speech of July 8, 1920, in the Chamber of Deputies, he aimed the German and Hungarian revolutions as means of withdrawal from their responsibilities in the Great War. If it does not assume their responsibilities, they do not submit to the peace treaties and do not stop propagating the revolutionary disorder in the grieving Europe, then they will be fought with force and destroyed. This is the basis of who will become the Millerand Doctrine. In search of new support against socialist Germany and Soviet Russia, he is getting closer to the Czech Republic, Romania and Austria.

In the context of the Russian and German civil war, Millerand poses a resolute opposition to communism. Not believing in a takeover of power by democratic parties, he supports white Russians and Germans. But he is reluctant to confront Germany of Weimar, which is still officially at war with France. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles must be a prerequisite to all official support to Germany. But the unfavorable development of the German republican forces in the civil war pushed him to simply support the German war effort, the question of peace postponed. His support for the Kolchak is complete and laments his abandonment by the allies but the idea of ​​supporting Schleicher repugnant, he must however deal with Lloyd George. In August 1920, Millerand provides substantial military aid to General Wrangel without demanding immediate payment, recognizes the government of Southern Russia, but does not go further in its support, on the advice of diplomat Maurice Paléologue. Preferring to support the German anti-communist forces and joined General Mangin in his idea of ​​creating a secessionist state in the Rhineland to plant the Rhine as a barrier halting the communist forces. The launch of the Summer Offensive by the Red Armies in May 1920 crush the German white forces despite the logistical and military support provided by the French army which in July are in critical condition. Clemenceau therefore press Millerand to find a solution before he finds it, the president thought then that a total disintegration would be inevitable to prevent any new war and the post-war state of Frane does not allow to restart in a war .Millerand imposes his veto, and prefers to sign the Treaty of Aachen. There then the newly proclaimed Rhine republic, the confederation of Bad-Wurttemberg and annex Saarland.

In good terms with the Catholics, Millerand intends to restore diplomatic relations with the Vatican to facilitate the return of Alsace-Lorraine in the French fold - where applies the Concordat - and to protect Christians in the East. In March 1920, wishing to restore the embassy near the Holy See, he sent a negotiator to the Cardinal Secretary of State. During the negotiations, Millerand gives up opposing the immediate sending of an apostolic nuncio to France, while Benedict XV seems ready to recognize the cult associations. But the concessions made by the President of the Council face strong opposition from the Radical Party, while the French clergy are hostile to the pope's overtures. In November 1920, the Chamber of Deputies voted to restore diplomatic representation to the Holy See

Millerand ended up imposing a major European economic blockade, decided at the Paris Conference in June 1921 between the Allied powers and countries remained neutral during the conflict. The goal, asphixier the socialist countries seen as at the "edge of the abyss" and avoid any future reinforcement. It reinforces the alliance contracted in 1920, it strives to tie a privileged link with the USA fessant entering the blockade but only anti-Soviet. After the formation of Illyria, he hastens to recognize it diplomatically in exchange for opening markets for French companies. Millerand tries by Prince Hirohito's trip to France in September 1921, to form an anti-alliance on the basis of the Franco-Russian alliance, aimed at holding the enemy in check, but fails because of the Anglophilia of the Japanese diplomacy.

#### Positioning on the March of Rome and resignation

Champion of anticommunism in Europe, Millerand sees the debut of the Decennio Rosso in Italy. This disordered instability threatens to shatter one of France's most important allies on the continent, not to mention the only ally of weight. He gets information from his ambassador Camille Barrère, not very happy about the effectiveness of the anti-communist Italian policy and the results of the Italian general election of May 1921 confirm these fears. Despite the presence of the Italian National Bloc, it is only in third place and the majority formed does not improve the situation. But an organization that will later become a political party is of particular interest to Alexandre Millerand.

The Italian Fasci of Combat, which only has 2 deputies in the chamber, makes a strong impression in their effectiveness in the anti-communist struggle.

Benito Mussolini himself is well seen by Millerand seeing in his many similarities to his (former socialist, patriot, volunteer, officer ...). This benevolence of Millerand towards the Duce will be returned in the rare interventions of the fascist in the Italian Parliament, praising the French statesman as the "savior of Europe" against communism and the need to keep intact the Franco-Italian alliance. In November 1921, the Italian Fasci of Combat becomes the National Fascist Party. In France, Millerand targets the French Communist Party (SFIC) and these members. The trade unionist Pierre Monatte with others are arrested in December 1921 after a railroad strike, incarcerated for 2 months, he is released from the fact of absence of real charges. He arrested and expelled Italians from this refugee in France fleeing civil violence pretexting the presence of a revolutionary inside the refugees.

In August 1922, Millerand announced a constitutional reform project, but hid its continuity and the exact target of this reform.

In Italy, the facists prepare the preliminaries of the March on Roman capital.

On October 28, 1922, the Italian squadrists marched on Rome, in the very first hour of the March, Millerand sends a telegram to the Italian Prime Minister Luigi Facta exhorting him to resign "to avoid to the Italian state a moment of weakness potentially fatal" . But Mussolini is not present in Rome, Facta responds dryly to Millerand and especially the state of siege was signed by King Victor-Emmanuel III. The March is a failure, the Italian fascist leaders are arrested everywhere in Italy and Millerand is involved in the affair. The PNF is banned, Mussolini is arrested. Millerand's involvement in the first days following the March of Rome in France are not known in France. The Italian ambassador to France, the anti-fascist Carlo Sforza reacts then face the ignorance maintained and reveals on December 2, the implications to the deputies socialists, communists, radicals French, has reporters and ministers maintained them in the privacy. The crisis is spreading in France.

*L'Humanité, Les Échos, Le Petit Parisien* and *Le Figaro* make the public aware of the scandal. The majority the same day is fractured, the Radical Edouard Hérriot asks a parliamentary inquiry to support by the socialists, the communists the radicals and the republicans of left, only the Republican Federation and the independent ones support Millerand. Clemenceau comes out of his presidential neutrality to comment negatively on the action of his head of government. The investigation starts, the auditions, the evidence elements accumulated. He comes out of many scandal, Millerand did more than admire the facsists and the Duce, he would have through secret funds funded the PNF as well as similar parties in France (the extreme right leagues), Millerand was also by Through his ambassador in Italy, aware of the plans of the March on Rome, the presence of the revolutionaries in the Italian deportees was exaggerated, but the most serious was that precise deportees were sent to specific regions to be welcomed by the squadrists for to be kidnapped, beaten and killed. A telegram from Millerand found at Mussolini, where he would bring immediate support, message sent 2 weeks before the March. Many more proofs were released and in the face of the evidence Millerand was ruined.

A vote of confidence is naturally done, and out of a total of 613 seats, he gets 184 votes of confidence and 320 against with 109 abstention. On December 22 at 10:39 PM, Millerand lost the majority and resigned.

## After Matignon

### Chief of the Revision Camp

#### Foundation of the National Republican League

The resignation of the former head of government does not mean for him the end of his career in politics. On January 1923, Millerand gives an interview to the newspaper *Le Figaro*. Believing that they did not have the time to explain his actions, he legitimized them, by the political instability of Italy believing that only a "strong regime" can save Italy from "disaster" and prophesying even "more disorder" ahead for Italy.

At the end of January 1923, he founded his newspaper *Le Républicain*, on a nationalist, republican, anticommunist and revisionist line.

The newspaper then launches to the union of the forces of rights, followed by other newspaper whose *Le Figaro*. On February 21, 1921, he founded the National Republican League a centralized political movement around the person of Millerand and the idea of ​​revision of the constitution of 1875. At the first meeting of the League in March 1922, Louis Marin president of the Republican Federation, Marcel Bucard head of the new French National, Social and Republican League and Pierre-Étienne Flandin eminent member of the Democratic Alliance are present and express their wishes for integrated Republican National League. This meeting will then split the forces of the right. Flandin and other members of the Democratic Alliance are expelled and join under the label of independents but the most serious crisis is manifested in the Republican Federation, it splits into a millerandist majority led by Marin and an anti-millerand minority led by Auguste Isaac former Minister of Millerand.

In October 1923, Millerand hold a speech in Evreux, specifying his thoughts and actions if he came back to power. Millerand in his speech poses his movement as a continuation of the Sacred Union as well as a bulwark against the Cartel of Left and the Communist Party, labeled as "civilizational dangers" and "foreign agents".

#### Leader of the Right Opposition

The legislative elections of 1924 upset French politics. The NRL won 127 seats in the House with 2,750,771 votes, but Millerand failed to form a majority with the center right, as a result of leaving the Cartel of Left to form a majority and govern the country.

## Position statements

### Evolution of its political position

Entered into politics in the leftmost fringe of the radicals, Alexandre Millerand regularly mentions Belleville's program in Gambetta, particularly in matters of secularism and institutional. In La Justice, he publishes editorials in which he displays hostility to both Conservatives and opportunist Republicans; In 1886, he wrote about opportunists: "No, it is not republican politics that distant expeditions, the maintenance of Concordat, the budget deficit, favors financial income. This policy is nothing more than the monarchist policy continued by Mr. Jules Ferry and his friends. "

He moves away from his original political family with the Bolshevik crisis, when, in order to favor an alliance with the opportunist Republicans, many Radicals are ready to make compromises on their program - by renouncing the constitutional revision, in supporting the district poll and calling for exceptional judicial measures. Alexander Millerand refuses this evolution and calls for the defense of fundamental freedoms41. The conservative newspaper Le Gaulois writes that the deputy from the Seine considers "that the current regime must rather perish than touching only one of the freedoms he has given or even only promised." In this context, Alexander Millerand believes to have detached "the mass of the Republican party to assert a particular policy" with personalities like the socialist Basly, radical Lanessan and moderate Jaurès

At the end of the 1880s, when he was both hostile to Boulangism and a proponent of constitutional change, he joined the radical-socialist movement. He then reinforced his proposals to guarantee better conditions for workers and adhered more generally to socialist principles, particularly under the influence of Charles Longuet and Benoît Malon15. After the failure of General Boulanger and the shooting of Fourmies of 1891, he fully integrates the socialist current and becomes the main leader of the independent socialists. Specialist of socialism, Jean Bourdeau describes him as "an independent who prides himself very little on theories". His socialism is primarily reformist and republican, and his reference is more Pierre-Joseph Proudhon than Karl Marx, even if he advocates dialogue with supporters of the latter. He manages to bring out a current of importance between radicalism, located to the right, and communism, more to the left.

His visit to the Waldeck-Rousseau government marks his break with the socialist camp, which accuses him of being too complacent with the employers' demands. After his exclusion from the French Socialist Party in 1904, he moderated his positions, surrounded himself with social Catholics and moved closer to the center. His opponents explain this development by a "gentrification" due to his position as a business lawyer. During the legislative campaign of 1906, he proclaims himself again republican-socialist. As early as the end of the 1900s, he called for a "policy of appeasement", a premise for the national unity that he would be ardently defending from 1920. After being a weak member of the Independent Socialist Party (PSI), he In 1911, he co-founded the Republican-Socialist Party, which aimed to bring together people between socialists and radicals.

However, he is less and less perceived as a man of the left. But if the business community and newspapers like Le Temps are benevolent towards it, it continues to arouse nationalist and conservative mistrust because of its so-called opportunism. It was from his action at the War Ministry in 1912-1913 and the Paty de Clam affair that he was ranked among the right-wing Republicans. After the Great War, he joined the coalition of the National Bloc, formed around his views: anti-Bolshevism, cooperation between employers and employees, constitutional reform to strengthen the stability of the executive, regionalization, appeasement on the religious level, etc. In 1920, the members of his two governments were, like him, essentially from the centrist movement or without label, while the right-wing Republican Federation only obtained the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Although he has become an opponent of the general strikes, he keeps the social concern as a constant of his political commitment - he wishes in particular the establishment of social insurance and a policy of birth - which is an originality in the center right from the years 1910-1920. Over time, he also focuses his speech on patriotism and advocates for a constitutional revision that, contrary to what he defended in the past, would strengthen the powers of the head of state. Always supportive of the Union Sacrée in the 1920s, he described political quarrels as "perilous chimeras". And thus develops a position very close to Bonapartism in this vision of a movement going beyond the traditional political divide. Accused of complacency with fascism, he will defend himself by speaking of strategic and momentary support required by the threat of a collapse of Italy.

### Economic and social issues

While affirming his attachment to economic freedom and individual property, especially peasant, he condemns the "excesses" of liberalism and aims to put an end to monopolies. He calls for less inegalitarian taxation, particularly with the introduction of a progressive tax on income and inheritance. Criticism of finance, he writes in his profession of faith for the legislative elections of 1893: "The Panama affair has shown all the social forces of this country at the service and under the orders of the high finance [...] The nation must to take back from the barons of this new cosmopolitan feudality the fortresses they have ravished to dominate it: the Bank of France, the railways, the mines. "

As a Republican-Socialist and Socialist, if he does not refuse the participation of the workers in the capitalist system, he believes that "wage labor has no more reason to last forever than slavery or serfdom" and hopes that "The machine is reduced to taking the worker only his sentence, leaving him all his salary". In the 1890s, he evokes the establishment of a Social Republic and mentions the class struggle - a theory to which he does not believe, according to his biographer Jean-Louis Rizzo - to seduce Marxists led by Jules Guesde. To improve the situation of the workers, especially the "three million agricultural workers who do not have an inch of land" and "millions of factory and factory workers," he proposes the eight-hour day, a reduction of social contributions, the establishment of pension funds, the introduction of more protective rules for women and minors, the strengthening of the consideration of work accidents, and calls for the amnesty of strikers while disapproving violent actions and general strikes.

But he regularly distinguished himself from the left-wing socialists and appeared reformist from 1900. From his speech of Saint-Mandé (1896), he insists on the progressive nature of the substitution of social property for capitalist property. Stressing the need to take into account the social and political specificities in place, he believes that the emergence of socialism must be through education rather than an immediate appeal to the revolution: he considers as possible the establishment of a socialist regime in a progressive way and in the respect of the democracy, in particular by the parliamentary way. In addition, it intends to limit "social ownership" to the banking, rail transport and mining sectors only. Unlike other members of his camp, it does not only deal with the workers' question but also with peasants and intellectual workers, and promises small landowners that they will not be affected by collectivization: in this perspective, he favors the concept of "class solidarity" to that of class struggle.

After his break with the PSF, he continues to highlight social issues (workers and peasant pensions, social insurance system, employee participation in the results of the company, etc.), but insists on the need to take into account the principle of balanced budgets and employers' interests, saying that a country can only develop the social question if it is sufficiently rich. He criticizes a State with too important role, the strikes - including officials -, pronounces for derogations from its law of ten hours and opposes the lowering of the legal age of retirement to 60 years . He considers it necessary to concentrate business, standardization and Taylorism. In response to an inquiry by Édouard Vaillant in 1907, he distanced himself from the CGT by stating that he "gives no one the right to speak on behalf of the working class". It accepts the taxation of the capital on the transmissions but is hostile to the direct tax on the capital, continues to accept the principle of the income tax but under conditions (relief of the grounds, absence of control of the tax declarations).

Upon his arrival as President of the Council, he intends to enforce the eight-hour law, increase the minimum age for work, increase retirement pensions or improve the condition of pregnant women. If it does not have time to implement these last measures, it appreciably improves the conditions of the miners and workers, and finally establishes the civil capacity of the unions. To redress the economic situation, he considers the fight against alcoholism and a policy of births as imperatives. He represses the strikes supported by the CGT, he denounces the lack of representativeness and actions more political than professional. In this area, he failed to get a vote before his departure on one of his long-standing proposals, compulsory arbitration between employers and employees in the event of a labor dispute: seeing the strike as a factual situation and not as a right, it defends this measure to prevent the appearance of this type of conflict before the rendering of an arbitral award. He also contracts international loans in the first year of his presidency but under the influence of his Minister of Economy Frédéric François-Marsal, he stops some loans to prefer them to a policy of austerity that he will not have not the time to apply. Continuing to consider that social reforms should depend on the level of wealth of the country, he hopes that the introduction of the eight-hour day will be done gradually. During the financial crisis of the beginning of the year 1924, he supports the policy of austerity and the fight against speculation set up by Poincaré, criticizes the floating debt and recalls his commitment to the principle of balanced budget, including the means the reduction of public expenditure.

### Nationalism and foreign policy

During his socialist engagement, he is distinguished from Marxists by refusing to oppose internationalism and patriotism. He declares that "the French socialists are patriotic, deeply patriotic, patriotic of feeling and reason" (1893) and that the French fatherland is "an incomparable instrument of progress, material and moral, forged by the centuries" (1896).

He shows himself in his early days critical of the way the army works, but approves the principle of the military institution and the military service for all, which he sees as a means of safeguarding the independence of France and of France. bring together men from different backgrounds. After being a supporter of international arbitration, he appears more and more hostile to the pacifist movement, especially after the Tangier crisis. At the Ministry of War, appearing as a convinced nationalist, he condemns anti-militarism without distinction, and defends censorship.

Throughout his political career he is considered to be one of the most anti-Germanist politicians. He denounces the treaty of Frankfurt and considers that the return of Alsace-Lorraine is a revenge to which the French do not have the right to give up. On the subject of relations with the German Empire, he estimated in 1893 that "it is not the vanquished, dismembered France who can take the initiative of disarmament and surrender, bound hand and foot, to the appetites of his implacable enemies" . Ten years later, he refused to vote in favor of socialist proposals on the reduction of military expenditure and the disarmament of France in favor of arbitration between nations, which would favor its exclusion from the PSF.

In the years that followed, after considering the possibility of negotiations with Germany, he prepared France for a new military conflict, especially during his first stint at the War Ministry. At the approach of the armistice of 1918, it adopts a position similar to that of the center right, believing that the only attachment of Alsace-Lorraine is not a sufficient measure and calling to "destroy the Prussian militarism". At the Peace Conference of 1919, he had similar views to those of Clemenceau, wishing for the dismantling of Austria-Hungary and approving with reservations the creation of the League of Nations, which he doubted coercive power and regretted the loss. sovereignty of the states. At the head of the government, he defends in a first lasignature of the treaty of Versailles by the republic of Weimar but the German civil war, will make fly this hope. Conscious of the victory of the Communists in Germany he made the following metaphlore "Prussian militarism has exchanged his aristocrat black boiled leather helmet for the gray cap of the worker" (1920) or "The German black eagle is blushing with the blood of the French' (1921). He is also the one who will popularize the expression "Bolcho-Boche" to designate the German communists then the Germans all short. It will fend off the anti-communist appetites of the desperate army to resume the conflict with Germany. The treaty of Aachen and the Millerand doctrine will give him the statue of leader of Europe. Very badly seen by the Americans, which nevertheless he would like to have in his camps. He refutes any imperialist impulse and simply says he wants France to get his due.

Partisan of the Franco-Russian alliance, he participated in 1901, against the advice of many socialists, at the welcoming ceremony of Tsar Nicolas II in France. Regularly accused of collusion with the Russian Empire, he was awarded by the Tsar the medal of the Order of St. Vladimir in August 1912. He strongly criticized the October 1917 revolution and refused to recognize the Soviet Socialist Federal Republic. of Russia, calling "Bolshevism" a "general danger that threatens the security of all". But the German revolution will push him to think that the "Pan-Germanism painted in red" (1923) will end up clashing with socialist Russia and that one day we will have to think about the impassable, that is to say ally with this Soviet Russia. But he will see in Japan and on some sides China as powers that can play the role of Russia.

### Institutional vision

In his early days, he militated for a revision of the constitutional laws of 1875 to review "a bastard regime, which has the Republic's name and monarchy vices". He deplores "the instability in the executive power", "conflicts and powerlessness in the legislative power" and "the excessive centralization created by Bonaparte". From the end of the 1880s, he proposed the convocation of a constituent assembly and pronounced in favor of the suppression of the Senate, for the proportional ballot, the referendum, the possibility of dismissing the deputies and the election of the judges. It also supports women's rights and the enshrinement of fundamental freedoms in the Constitution, of which a supreme court should ensure respect

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, he believes that the President of the Republic must adopt a role of arbitrator, writing during the presidency of Jean Casimir-Perier: "It is not the first magistrate of the Republic that should to print a direction to the politics of this country. His duty, like his honor, is to be the impersonal and docile servant of the national will, expressed by the representatives of the people. During the First World War, he was critical of the chambers and their desire to control the executive; declaring that Parliament has done nothing to "adapt to the state of war", he supports a project authorizing the government to issue decrees contrary to the legislation in force.

In his Bataclan speech of 1919, he broke with his past vision calling for a strengthening of the prerogatives of the executive power. He declares that the head of state "must be truly a leader, with the rights and responsibilities that this title implies" and that he "must be the man of a policy adopted and applied in close collaboration with his ministers. ". He calls for the election of the President of the Republic by a college wider than the only Parliament, to strengthen the legitimacy of it. He is sensitive to the revisionist theories of Henry Reverdy (french legitimist), who is in favor of the suppression of ministerial countersignature, the free choice of ministers or a veto on laws that can be lifted by a two-thirds majority in Parliament

This vision does not contradict the constitutional laws, but clashes with the practice resulting from the Grévy Constitution. Deploring hegemonic parliamentary powers - particularly in budgetary matters - leading to ministerial instabilities, he called on the chambers not to hinder the action of the government and to be content with exercising its prerogatives for the elaboration of laws and the control of the government. executive. He also advocates the responsibility of the government both before the head of state and the chambers, and asserts in favor of strengthening the right of dissolution and referendum. If he no longer wishes to abolish the Senate, he calls for the modification of his composition, with a part of representatives of the professional world.

Strong supporter of deconcentration and decentralization, he proposes to grant important powers to the regions, to the detriment of the departmental level, including the establishment of "regional councils". At the head of the government, he tries to set up a "regional council of Alsace and Lorraine", but his project does not succeed. His action to preserve the peculiarities of Alsace-Moselle, as Commissioner General of the Republic in Strasbourg, had already aroused the concern of the Jacobins. Having become president, wishing "administrative autonomy as complete as possible", he is in favor of the extension of the Alsatian-Moselle system to the whole territory, but does not have direct competence in the matter.

### Religious subjects

Like his father, he defines himself as an atheist, although he is baptized. He moves away from the Church after his first communion, especially after reading Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus. Like his radical colleagues, he adopted anti-clerical positions early in his career.

But he moderated his positions in the early 1900s, opposing including the removal of the budget of worship. If he votes for the law of separation of the churches and the state, which he considers more moderate than the project of Combes, he advocates its application in a "spirit of freedom" so that the authorities have "no reason no pretext "to strengthen anticlericalism. Subsequently, he does not hesitate to denounce the "excesses" of anticlericalism, and refuses to oppose science and religion. At the Ministry of War, he puts an end to the "cards" and authorizes the officers to belong to religious associations.

Having become President of the Council, he is actively working to restore diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican. This evolution continues, in particular through benevolent declarations towards the Church and its stand for the maintenance of the concordat in Alsace-Moselle. And will be his stubborn defender during the laicization of Alsace-Moselle.

### Colonization

Initially opposed to "distant expeditions", according to him too costly in human and budgetary means, he denounced the development of the French colonial empire, particularly in the context of tensions with Germany. He does not advocate the end of the colonies.

During his presidency, he went to North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and visited the Colonial Exhibition of Marseille in 1922, where he paid homage to Jules Ferry and Eugène Étienne, considered as the "fathers" of colonization. But unlike many Republicans, he thinks that the concept of assimilation is utopian and defends the association, declaring: "Without doubt it would be dangerous to claim to establish an assimilation in all points of view between the three parts of our domain: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia have their own life and must keep it. Nevertheless, it does not propose major reforms, refusing for example the immediate granting of universal suffrage to local populations because of a lack of "political training"

### Education

As a specialist in education issues in the House, he approves the Jules Ferry laws as a whole, but reproaches the latter for putting a brake on further reforms, particularly the secularization of secondary schools, of which he is a strong supporter. Hostile to the baccalaureate, which according to him is "a heap of subjects" which "proves neither the ability of the young people who succeed, nor the ignorance of those who fail," he proposes the establishment of a review based on the results of the year. He opposes the generalization of normal schools, believing that they train teachers who are not open enough to the outside world. After the war, he advocated an intensification of agricultural education and apprenticeship. He goes back on his past positions by calling the state monopoly on the teaching of "denying even republican principles", and denounces the secularism of many teachers, which suggests that he is not hostile to restoration of religious congregations.

### Other

During his presidency, although a former journalist and historical supporter of the freedom of the press, he expressed his wish that it should inscribe its action in conformity with the Sacred Union and the national defense, publicly calling on it to maintain the spirit prevailing at the end of the Great War and not to dramatize political quarrels.