Louis-Ernest Lafont (26 July 1879 in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

– 7 May 1946 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

.
Ernest, Louis LAFONT (1879 - 1946)
'Gordon, David M.
Liberalism and Social Reform: Industrial Growth and Progressiste Politics in France, 1880 - 1914
'. Westport, Conn. .a. Greenwood Press, 1996. p. 113) was a French

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

politician. Lafont represented

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

in the

between 1914 and 1928, and then

Hautes-Alpes Hautes-Alpes (; ; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population ...

between 1928 and 1936. He served as Minister of Public Health 1935-1936. Politically, he was a disciple of Hubert Lagardelle.Wohl, Robert.
French Communism in the Making, 1914-1924
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1966. p. 31 A lawyer by profession from a bourgeois background, Lafont was a graduate of the '' Ecole des sciences politiques'' and a lawyer at the

Paris Court of Appeals The Court of Appeal of Paris (, ) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne. ...

. He obtained a doctorate in Law. He served as the legal attorney of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). Inside

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

(SFIO), Lafont belonged to the insurrectionary

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

and anti-parliamentary left. In 1910 he contested the parliamentary elections, but trailed behind the winning candidate by merely 500 votes. In 1912 he became the mayor of the socialist local government in

Firminy Firminy (; ) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It lies on the river Ondaine, 13 km southwest of Saint-Étienne by rail. History The ancient name of the town was ''Firminiaco'' or ''Firminiacus'' (lit. "place of Fir ...

. In 1914 he was elected to the French parliament from the Le Chambon-Feugerolles constituency, with 11,256 votes.Gordon, David M.
Liberalism and Social Reform: Industrial Growth and Progressiste Politics in France, 1880 - 1914
'. Westport, Conn. .a. Greenwood Press, 1996. p. 114 During this period Lafont was able to mobilize sizeable support from the middle class of Firminy, particularly through campaigns against alcoholism and prostitution. Lafont was re-elected to parliament in 1919, the sole Guesdist deputy from

. Lafont travelled to

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in July 1920, seeking to participate in the second congress of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

.Wohl, Robert.
French Communism in the Making, 1914-1924
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1966. p. 180 However, he was expelled from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

's orders.Wohl, Robert.
French Communism in the Making, 1914-1924
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1966. p. 184 Lafont had been accused of contacts with the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

.Friends of Soviet Russia, and Russian Soviet Government Bureau.
Soviet Russia Pictorial
'. Chicago, etc: Friends of Soviet Russia, etc.], 1921. p. 362 Lafont did however become a member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

in the same year. He was expelled from the party in 1923, due to his links to the League for Human Rights.Irvine, William D.
Between Justice and Politics: The Ligue Des Droits De L'homme, 1898-1945
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2007. p. 77 Lafont joined the Socialist-Communist Union. He was the sole candidate of that party elected in the 1928 French National Assembly election.

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was an international organization of socialist and labourist parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the Berne Intern ...

.
Kongress-Protokolle der Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Internationale - B. 3.1 Brüssel 1928
'. Glashütten im Taunus: D. Auvermann, 1974. p. IV. 52 In the late 1920s, Lafont was one of the more radical profiles in the League for Human Rights, advocating labour rights and pacifism. Lafont was named Minister of Public Health in the cabinets of Fernand Bouisson and

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 ...

, formed in 1935. Notably, Laval's first employment had been as the secretary of Lafont whilst Lafont had worked as a lawyer for the CGT.Torrès, Henry, and Norbert Guterman.
Pierre Laval
'. New York: Oxford university press, 1941. p. 14 Lafont's cabinet tenures lasted between 1 and 7 June 1935 in the Bouisson cabinet, and between 7 June 1935 and 24 January 1936 in Laval's government. His participation in the national government led to him being expelled socialist parliamentary group. In 1936, he lost his parliamentary seat to the SFIO candidate Auguste Muret (the mayor of Gap). He was married to Zinaida Lafont. Lafont died on 7 May 1946 in the Seventh ''arrondissement'' of Paris, at the age of 66.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafont, Ernest 1879 births 1946 deaths Politicians from Lyon French Section of the Workers' International politicians French Communist Party politicians Socialist-Communist Union politicians Socialist Party of France – Jean Jaurès Union politicians Civil service 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 Members of Parliament for Loire Members of Parliament for Hautes-Alpes French general councillors Mayors of places in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 20th-century French lawyers