Daladier, Édouard
Daladier, Édouard
(ādo͞oär` dälädyā`), 1884–1970, French politician, a Radical Socialist. After World War I he was a member of successive French cabinets. He was premier from Jan. to Oct., 1933, and again from Jan. to Feb., 1934, when the Stavisky AffairStavisky Affair, financial and political scandal that shook France in 1934. Serge Alexandre Stavisky, a swindler associated with the municipal pawnshop of Bayonne, sold huge quantities of worthless bonds.
..... Click the link for more information. , which did not implicate him personally, caused serious riots in Paris and forced his resignation. In Apr., 1938, Daladier obtained the premiership and was also minister of national defense. He did his best to nullify the social and economic legislation enacted by the four previous cabinets and signed (Sept., 1938) the Munich PactMunich Pact,
1938. In the summer of 1938, Chancellor Hitler of Germany began openly to support the demands of Germans living in the Sudetenland (see Sudetes) of Czechoslovakia for an improved status. In September, Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudetenland.
..... Click the link for more information. . From 1939 he was also minister of war and foreign affairs. He resigned as premier in Mar., 1940, because his failure to aid Finland's defense against Russia was unpopular, but he remained in the cabinet until the French collapse (June) in World War II. Arrested by the Vichy government in 1940, he was a defendant at the war-guilt trial at RiomRiom
, town (1990 pop. 19,302), Puy-de-Dôme dept., S central France, in Auvergne. It has distilleries, tobacco plants, and factories making pharmaceuticals. Of Gallic origin, the Roman Ricomagus grew around the collegiate Church of St. Amable (1077; restored).
..... Click the link for more information. (1942), was interned by the Germans, and was liberated in 1945. Daladier was elected to the national assembly in 1946. He sat in the assembly until 1958.
Daladier, Édouard
Born June 18, 1884, in Carpentras; died Oct. 11,1970, in Paris. French politician and statesman.
Daladier was one of the leaders of the Radical Party and was its chairman in the periods 1927–31, 1935–38, and 1957–58. Between 1924 and 1940 he repeatedly entered the government. He was premier from January to October 1933, January to February 1934, and April 1938 to March 1940. As leader of the Radical Party, Daladier took part in the Popular Front and helped in its victory. But in October 1938, the leadership of the Radicals, headed by Daladier, split the Popular Front and the government of Daladier liquidated a number of its achievements.
Pursuing a policy of appeasing the fascist aggressors, Daladier signed the Munich Pact of 1938. After declaring war on fascist Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, the government conducted the “phony war,” which led up to the fall of France in the summer of 1940. From 1947 to 1954, Daladier headed the Union of Left Republicans. He spoke out against the colonial war of France in Indochina (1945–54), against the plan for the creation of the European Defense Community, and against the antidemocratic articles of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic (1958). After 1958 he withdrew from political life.