André Pierre Gabriel Amédée Tardieu (; 22 September 1876 – 15 September 1945) was three times

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (), officially the prime minister of the French Republic (''Premier ministre de la République française''), is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers. The prime ...

(3 November 1929 – 17 February 1930; 2 March – 4 December 1930; 20 February – 10 May 1932) and a dominant figure of French political life in 1929–1932. He was a moderate conservative with a strong intellectual reputation, but became a weak prime minister at the start of the worldwide

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

Biography

Tardieu's paternal grandmother was the composer and pianist Charlotte Tardieu. Andre Tardieu was a graduate of the elite ''

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...

''. He was accepted by the even more prestigious ''

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

'', but instead entered the diplomatic service. Later, he left the service and became famous as foreign affairs editor of the newspaper ''Le Temps''. He founded the conservative newspaper ''L'Echo National'' in association with Georges Mandel. In 1914, Tardieu was elected to 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 Bourb ...

from the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () is a former department of France, which encompassed the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its prefecture was Versailles and its administrative number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was disbanded in ...

, as a candidate of the center-right Democratic Republican Alliance (''Alliance Démocratique'' – AD). He retained this seat till 1924. From 1926 to 1936, he represented the ''département'' of ''

Territoire de Belfort The Territoire de Belfort (; "Territory of Belfort") is a department in the northeastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In 2020 it had a population of 140,120.World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out, Tardieu enlisted in the army and served before he was wounded and invalided home in 1916. He then returned to politics. He served as

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the poli ...

's lieutenant in 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference and as Commissioner for Franco-American War Cooperation. On 8 November 1919, he became Minister of Liberated Regions, administering

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

and

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

, and served until Clemenceau's defeat in 1920. In 1926, Tardieu returned to government as Minister of Transportation under

Raymond Poincaré Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...

. In 1928, he moved to

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, continuing under Poincaré's successor

Aristide Briand Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...

. In November 1929, Tardieu himself succeeded Briand as '' Président du Conseil'' (Prime Minister) and remained Interior Minister. Though generally considered a conservative, he introduced a program of welfare measures, including public works, social insurance, and free secondary schooling, and he encouraged modern techniques in industry. On 11 March 1932, legislation was passed that established universal family allowances for all wage earners in business and industry with at least two children. He hoped to replace the old ideological standoff between the right and left to a more relevant division based on the modern economy. He argued that "a more dynamic capitalism would dry up the Marxism of the working classes." The goal of his leadership was prosperity. When the Great Depression began in 1929, his goal was to evade a depression in France, which worked for several years. According to Monique Clague, "An obstinate deflationist throughout the thirties Tardieu would clearly not have given France a new deal." In the election of 1932 "he acknowledged the responsibility of the modern state for curing unemployment, but, devoted to the Poincaré franc, he would have sacrificed employment to the maintenance of the gold standard."Clague, pp 105–28. Tardieu was displaced from both offices for ten days in February–March 1930 by Radical

Camille Chautemps Camille Chautemps (; 1 February 1885 – 1 July 1963) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). He was the father-in-law of U.S. politician and statesman Howar ...

, but he returned until December. He was then Minister of Agriculture in 1931,

Minister of War A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

in 1932, and again Prime Minister (this time, also

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

), from 20 February to 3 June 1932, until his coalition was defeated in the May elections. As Prime Minister, Tardieu served for three (7–10 May 1932) days as the Acting President of the French Republic, between the assassination of Paul Doumer and the election of

Albert Lebrun Albert François Lebrun (; 29 August 1871 – 6 March 1950) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1932 to 1940. He was the last president of the Third Republic. He was a member of the centre-right Democratic Republica ...

. He was briefly a

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

without portfolio in 1934. His later political activity was largely concerned with containing and responding to German expansion. In his two-volume book ''La Révolution à refaire'', Tardieu criticized the French parliamentary system.

Bibliography

Some of his books include: * ''La France et les alliances'' (1908) * ''La Paix'' (1921; published in English as ''The Truth About the Treaty'') * ''Devant l'obstacle'' (1927); published in English as ''France and America'') * ''La Révolution à refaire'', 2 volumes (1936–37)

Tardieu's First Ministry, 3 November 1929 – 21 February 1930

*André Tardieu – President of the Council and Minister of Interior *

– Minister of Foreign Affairs * André Maginot – Minister of War * Henri Chéron – Minister of Finance *

Louis Loucheur Louis Loucheur (12 August 1872 in Roubaix, Nord – 22 November 1931 in Paris) was a French politician in the Third Republic, at first a member of the conservative Republican Federation, then of the Democratic Republican Alliance and of the I ...

– Minister of Labour, Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions * Lucien Hubert – Minister of Justice * Georges Leygues – Minister of Marine * Louis Rollin – Minister of Merchant Marine * Laurent Eynac – Minister of Air * Pierre Marraud – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts * Claudius Gallet – Minister of Pensions * Jean Hennessy – Minister of Agriculture * François Piétri – Minister of Colonies * Georges Pernot – Minister of Public Works * Louis Germain-Martin – Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones * Pierre Étienne Flandin – Minister of Commerce and Industry

Tardieu's Second Government, 2 March – 13 December 1930

*André Tardieu – President of the Council and Minister of the Interior *

– Minister of Foreign Affairs * André Maginot – Minister of War * Paul Reynaud – Minister of Finance * Louis Germain-Martin – Minister of Budget *

Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic (France), Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vich ...

– Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions * Raoul Péret – Minister of Justice * Jacques-Louis Dumesnil – Minister of Marine * Louis Rollin – Minister of Merchant Marine * Laurent Eynac – Minister of Air * Pierre Marraud – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts * Auguste Champetier de Ribes – Minister of Pensions * Fernand David – Minister of Agriculture * François Piétri – Minister of Colonies * Georges Pernot – Minister of Public Works * Désiré Ferry – Minister of Public Health * André Mallarmé – Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones * Pierre Étienne Flandin – Minister of Commerce and Industry Changes *17 November 1930 – Henri Chéron succeeded Péret as Minister of Justice.

Tardieu's Third Ministry, 20 February – 3 June 1932

*André Tardieu – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs * Paul Reynaud – Vice President of the Council and Minister of Justice * François Piétri – Minister of National Defense * Albert Mahieu – Minister of the Interior * Pierre Étienne Flandin – Minister of Finance *

– Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions * Charles Guernier – Minister of Public Works and Merchant Marine * Mario Roustan – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts * Auguste Champetier de Ribes – Minister of Pensions and Liberated Regions * Claude Chauveau – Minister of Agriculture * Louis de Chappedelaine – Minister of Colonies * Camille Blaisot – Minister of Public Health * Louis Rollin – Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones

Primary sources

* Tardieu, André. ''France and the Alliances: The Struggle for the Balance of Power'' (Macmillan, 1908
online

written 1921, to defend the French negotiators from claims that they had been too lenient on the Germans.

References

External links

* (contains details about the family allowance reform introduced under Tardieu) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tardieu, Andre 1876 births 1945 deaths 20th-century heads of state of France Politicians from Paris Democratic Republican Alliance politicians Republican Centre politicians Prime ministers of France Ministers of transport of France French interior ministers Ministers of agriculture of France Ministers of war of France Government ministers of France Members of the 11th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic 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 Lycée Condorcet alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers