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 ...
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
Events
January
* January 1
** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...
, receiving degrees in law and philosophy. He worked as a lawyer in his hometown of Le Havre, specialising in maritime and commercial law.
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 de ...
of
Seine-Inférieure 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 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 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 Worl ...
, 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 department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...
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. 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 rep ...
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 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. 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, 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 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.
See also
* Politics of France
The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic ...
References
External links
* An AP obituary of René Coty, 23 November 1962.
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{{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