Marx Dormoy

Marx Dormoy (1 August1888—26 July 1941) was a French socialist politician, noted for his opposition to the far right. Born in Montluçon, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO, the Socialist Party of today) to the French National Assembly in 1931 for the Allier département. A member of the Popular Front's government, cabinet secretary to Léon Blum, he played ... more

Marx Dormoy (1 August1888—26 July 1941) was a French socialist politician, noted for his opposition to the far right. Born in Montluçon, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO, the Socialist Party of today) to the French National Assembly in 1931 for the Allier département. A member of the Popular Front's government, cabinet secretary to Léon Blum, he played a part in negotiating the Matignon Accords. From 1936 to 1938 he was Minister of the Interior (replacing Roger Salengro), and fought the rise of violent far right groups such as the Cagoule, using his prerogatives to depose Jacques Doriot, mayor of Saint-Denis - arguing that the Saint-Denis commune had become the site of anti-republican agitation; he was also an opponent of illegal immigration of Eastern European political refugees to France. On 16 March 1937, Dormoy provoked a crisis inside the Popular Front, after the French Police opened... less