Jules Gustave René Coty (; 20 March 188222 November 1962) was

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president of the

Fourth French Republic The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Re ...

Early life and politics

René Coty was born in

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

and studied at the

University of Caen The University of Caen Normandy (French: ''Université de Caen Normandie''), also known as Unicaen, is a public university in Caen, France. History The institution was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the first rector ...

, where he graduated in 1902, receiving degrees in law and philosophy. He worked as a lawyer in his hometown of Le Havre, specialising in maritime and commercial law. René Coty-1929

He also became involved in politics, as a member of the Radical Party, and in 1907 was elected as a district councillor. The following year he was elected to the communal council of Le Havre as a member of the Republican Left group. He retained both of these positions until 1919. Coty also served as a member of the

Conseil Général The departmental councils ( French: ''conseils départementaux''; singular, ''conseil départemental'') of France are representative assemblies elected by universal suffrage in 98 of the country's 101 departments. Prior to the 2015 French depa ...

Seine-Inférieure Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Infé ...

from 1913 to 1942, holding the post of vice president from 1932. When the First World War broke out, Coty volunteered for the army, joining the 129th Infantry Regiment. He fought at the

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun (french: Bataille de Verdun ; german: Schlacht um Verdun ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

. He entered the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

in 1923, succeeding

Jules Siegfried Jules Siegfried (12 February 1837 – 26 September 1922) was a French politician. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1885 to 1897, and from 1902 to 1922. Siegfried was active in the social Protestant movement, as were other ...

as Deputy for Seine-Inférieure. However, by this stage of his political career Coty had moved away from the Radical Party, and sat as a member of the Republican Union. Between 13 and 23 December 1930 he served as Under-secretary of State for the Interior in the government of

Théodore Steeg Théodore Steeg () (19 December 1868 – 19 December 1950) was a lawyer and professor of philosophy who became Premier of the French Third Republic. Steeg entered French politics in 1904 as a radical socialist, although his views were generally m ...

. In 1936, Coty was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for Seine-Inférieure. He was one of the French parliamentarians who, on 10 July 1940, voted to give extraordinary powers to

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...

, thereby bringing about the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-backed

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...

government. Coty remained relatively inactive during the Second World War, although he was rehabilitated after the war.

Postwar life and presidency

He was a member of the Constituent National Assembly from 1944 to 1946, and chaired the right-wing ''Independent Republican'' group, which later became part of the

National Center of Independents and Peasants The National Centre of Independents and Peasants (''Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans'', CNIP) is a right-wing agrarian political party in France, founded in 1951 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents (the heir of the ...

. Coty was elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

in 1946 as a Deputy for Seine-Inférieure, and from November 1947 to September 1948, he served as Minister for Reconstruction and Urban Planning in the governments of

Robert Schuman Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 18864 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. Twice Prime Minister of France, a ref ...

and André Marie. Coty was elected as a member of the Council of the Republic in November 1948, and served as Vice President of the Council from 1952. Coty stood as a candidate for president in 1953, although it was thought unlikely that he would be elected. Nonetheless, and despite twelve successive ballots, right-wing favourite

Joseph Laniel Joseph Laniel (; 12 October 18898 April 1975) was a French conservative politician of the Fourth Republic, who served as Prime Minister for a year from 1953 to 1954. During the middle of his tenure as Prime Minister Laniel was an unsuccessful ...

failed to obtain the absolute majority required. Following the withdrawal of another key right-wing candidate,

Louis Jacquinot Louis Jacquinot (16 September 1898 – 14 June 1993) was a French lawyer and politician, and chief of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré's office. Jacquinot was born in Gondrecourt-le-Château (Meuse) in 1898. Entering parliament in 1932, he la ...

, Coty was finally elected in the thirteenth ballot on 23 December 1953, winning 477 votes against the 329 of socialist

Marcel-Edmond Naegelen Marcel-Edmond Naegelen (17 January 1892, Belfort – 15 April 1978, Paris) was a French politician. He represented the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in the 1945 French legislative election, Constituent Assembly elected in 194 ...

. He succeeded

Vincent Auriol Vincent Jules Auriol (; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1947 to 1954. Early life and politics Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Aurio ...

as president on 16 January 1954. As President of the Republic, Coty was even less active than his predecessor in trying to influence policy. His presidency was troubled by the political instability of the Fourth Republic and the Algerian question. With the deepening of the crisis in 1958, on 29 May of that year, President Coty appealed to

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

, the "most illustrious of Frenchmen" to become the last Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic. Coty had threatened to resign if de Gaulle's appointment was not approved by the National Assembly. De Gaulle drafted a new constitution, and on 28 September, a referendum took place in which 79.2% of those who voted supported the proposals, which led to the Fifth Republic. De Gaulle was elected as president of the new republic by parliament in December, and succeeded Coty on 9 January 1959. Coty was a member of the

Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to: * Constitutional Council (Chad) * Constitutional Council (France) * Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast) * Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka) * Constitutional Council (Cambodia) * Constitutional Council (Kaz ...

from 1959 until his death in 1962.

In popular culture

A photo of President Coty is a running joke in the 2006 French spy spoof '' OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies''.The Revenge of Jacques Bond
Heidi Ellison, Paris Update, 26 April 2006. Retrieved 6 August 2010.

References

External links

* An AP obituary of René Coty, 23 November 1962. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Coty, Rene 1882 births 1962 deaths 20th-century presidents of France 20th-century Princes of Andorra Democratic Republican Alliance politicians Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic 20th-century French lawyers French military personnel of World War I French Roman Catholics French Senators of the Third Republic Government ministers of France 2 2 Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945) Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946) Members of the 12th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 13th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 15th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Politicians from Le Havre People of the Cold War University of Caen Normandy alumni Princes of Andorra Senators of Seine-Maritime

Early life and politics

Postwar life and presidency

In popular culture

See also

References

External links