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Vincent Auriol - Early life and politics

Vincent Auriol - Early life and politics: Encyclopedia II - Vincent Auriol - Early life and politics

Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne on August 27, 1884, the son of a butcher. 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. Auriol entered the Chamber of Deputies as a socialist in 1914 as a representative for Muret; a year later he was elected mayor of Toulouse. After the breakup of the Parti Socialiste Unifé in 1920, Auriol became a founding member of the socialist SFIO party, opposed to the ...

Vincent Auriol: Encyclopedia II - Vincent Auriol - Early life and politics

Vincent Auriol - Early life and politics

Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne on August 27, 1884, the son of a butcher. 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. Auriol entered the Chamber of Deputies as a socialist in 1914 as a representative for Muret; a year later he was elected mayor of Toulouse. After the breakup of the Parti Socialiste Unifé in 1920, Auriol became a founding member of the socialist SFIO party, opposed to the revolutionary rhetoric of the socialist party's left wing.

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 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 government formed in 10 April 1938 returned Auriol to the Chamber of Deputies.

Auriol voted against the extraordinary powers given to Prime Minister Philippe Pétain on July 10, 1940 that brought about Vichy France. As a result, he was placed under house arrest until he escaped to the French resistance in October 1942, and fought with the resistance for a year. Auriol fled to London in October of 1943. He represented the Socialists at the Free French Consultative Assembly organized by Charles de Gaulle in Algiers later that year. In July 1944, he represented France at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. He was a Minister of State in de Gaulle's second provisional government.