Beginnings in Parliament (1893–1901) In 1893, while he was a
justice of the peace for the
commune of
Aïn El Arbaa, he returned to Aigues-Vives in France and presented his candidacy for a partial legislative election in December 1893, intended to fill the seat of , a longtime friend who had just been re-elected in the
August 1893 election but died suddenly on 18 November, before the opening of the parliamentary session. Nothing destined him for politics and his grandfather had even refused an appointment as mayor of the village in 1836 because of the modesty of his fortune in a tax system. Encouraged by his mother who followed his career step-by-step, Doumergue was elected as the
Radical deputy for Nîmes with 10,101 votes, beating, in the second round, the mayor of Nîmes, , who obtained only 24 votes. He was re-elected deputy on
8 May 1898, in the first round of the ballot, with 11,514 votes against the conservative Albert de Nesmes-Desmarets. He was very involved in
France's colonial policy and, during his speeches at the podium (which were well-received on the left benches), criticized successive governments for their
military interventionism From 1894, he also denounced the "benevolent indifference and not the pronounced sympathy" of public opinion vis-à-vis colonial policy, which masked the looting of conquered territories and the violence of the administration. His secular and republican convictions made him side with
Alfred Dreyfus. His successive mandates were also an opportunity for him to defend small agricultural producers. His influence within the left grew. He was elected deputy for the third time on
27 April 1902, in the first round. A
freemason since 1901, he was initiated into the lodge ''L'Écho du Grand Orient'' at the Orient of Nîmes,
Grand Orient de France.
Ministerial portfolios (1902–1910) Under the presidency of
Émile Loubet, he was
Minister of the Colonies in the
Émile Combes government from 1902 to 1905. He was minister without interruption from 1906 to 1910, first for Trade and Industry, where he created the direction of the merchant navy, then for Public Instruction and Fine Arts from 1908, replacing
Aristide Briand. In this capacity, on 4 June 1908, he delivered a speech on behalf of the government of
Georges Clemenceau during the transfer of
Émile Zola's ashes to the
Panthéon, praising the "heroism" of the writer just as he, on 19 March the previous year, had defended the organization of the transfer ceremony on the Assembly platform, against the
anti-Dreyfusards. A fervent supporter of secular schools, he unleashed the most violent school war in the history of France by filing two "secular defense" projects in June 1908 aimed at punishing families who prevented their children from following an education, even an
anti-Catholic one. For this, he received the nickname of "escapee from
St. Bartholomew" from the
polemicist
Édouard Drumont. In the field of education, Doumergue also pleaded in favour of the teaching of
Arabic in
French Algeria. He also became vice-president of the
Chamber of Deputies for a year, from February 1905 to March 1906, between his two ministries. In 1910, he was elected senator for
Gard, after the death of
Frédéric Desmons. Doumergue was re-elected in 1912 and 1921.
First government (1913–1914) From 9 December 1913 to 8 June 1914 he was President of the Council and
Minister of Foreign Affairs at the request of President
Raymond Poincaré, who sought in Doumergue a conciliator capable of forming a cabinet of "republican harmony". From then on, Doumergue strove to reconcile the demands of the Radical party and the interests of the country, in an international horizon that was becoming darker: the statesman took precedence over the partisan. Doumergue needed to defend the law on three-year military service, which he voted through, not without scrutiny, in August 1913: "None of you is expecting us to reopen the debate: that's the law." The proposal to create an income tax by the finance minister,
Joseph Caillaux, triggered a controversy among the conservatives, but was finally voted on in July 1914 by a Senate which had been hostile to it for five years. The "
Calmette affair", which led to the resignation of the minister, put the government in a difficult position as the tenth legislature ended and a delicate electoral campaign began. Doumergue had, however, warned that he "would in no case stay after the elections". It was time for a policy of rearmament and closer alliances, which Poincaré and Doumergue carried out successfully. However, Doumergue did not lose sight of the international situation, and the chancelleries were constantly kept on alert. The Radical party easily came out on top in the
1914 French legislative election and this left-wing majority, elected on the theme of peace, caused the President great difficulty in constituting a cabinet that could succeed Doumergue. The latter took advantage of the end of his functions to undertake a trip to
Upper Austria. On 3 August 1914, the day of
Germany's
declaration of war on France, marking the start of
World War I, the new president of the council,
René Viviani, called on Doumergue to replace him at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the composition of his short-lived first government. Then, he was minister of the colonies in the successive governments from 26 August 1914 to 19 March 1917. During this mandate, in the middle of the war, he ensured the security of French possessions and set up a secret
agreement with
Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia which defined the demands that France and Russia would make in future peace negotiations with Germany and
Austria-Hungary. However, this treaty became null and void following the
October Revolution. In February 1923, he was elected
President of the Senate, replacing
Léon Bourgeois.
President of the Republic (1924–1931) Election to the presidency His career culminated with his election as
President of the Republic on
13 June 1924, for a seven-year term. This accession to the head of state was the result of several successive political events. The preceding 11 and 25 May saw the victory of the
Cartel des Gauches in the
legislative elections, despite a higher number of votes for the right and thanks to an electoral law granting a bonus to alliances. Raymond Poincaré, the President of the Council since 1922, having been disavowed, submitted his resignation to President
Alexandre Millerand. The cartelists claimed power in the "smallest cogs of the administration".
Paul Painlevé was brought to the head of the Chamber thanks to the votes of the Cartel also led by
Léon Blum,
Édouard Herriot, and Aristide Briand against the candidate of the right,
André Maginot. The appointment of
Frédéric François-Marsal was taken as a provocation and his government lasted only two days. Thus, the left, which forced Alexandre Millerand to resign, then believed it could bring Painlevé to the presidency, but the moderates thwarted his ambitions by massively turning to Gaston Doumergue, who already benefitted from some of the votes on the left. He received 515 votes out of 815 voters, against 309 for Painlevé and 21 for
Zéphyrin Camélinat, the first
communist candidate in a presidential election.
Domestic policy He appointed the mayor of Lyon, Édouard Herriot, as head of government and charged him with establishing a policy of symbolic change to satisfy the electorate. The cartel state was installed, with its members holding a majority of the presidencies of parliamentary committees, as well as the major positions in the administration. The scandal of irregularities at the
Bank of France overthrew the government and Doumergue resolved to appoint Paul Painlevé as President of the Council in order to unite Radical and socialist voices, playing with designations according to the parliamentary pendulum. On 5 July 1924 Gaston Doumergue proclaimed the official opening of the
1924 Summer Olympics in
Paris during the opening ceremony held at the
Stade olympique de Colombes in the presence of the
President of the International Olympic Committee,
Pierre de Coubertin, the members of the
IOC, the President of the
French Olympic Committee,
Justinien Clary, the members of the FOC, as well as the 44
participating delegations. Doumergue's seven-year term was marked by the prosperity of
France during the interwar period and the
Années folles, but also by significant ministerial instability and financial difficulties caused by the
fall of the franc. Called to the
Ministry of Finance in July 1926, Poincaré instituted a policy of austerity by bringing the franc back to its real value through a sharp devaluation. He also restored confidence and managed to boost a flagging economy. This neo-liberal policy also generated a period of economic and financial prosperity, at a time when the United States was hit hard by the
stock market crash of 1929. Progress in technical industry, particularly in the
steel industry and
automobiles, contributed to the country's growth. Production capacity thus increased by 45% over the 1920s. To support this development, Doumergue reinforced a centrist policy and instituted workers'
social insurance. In May 1930, he went to the departments of Algeria, to the lands he had known in the first years of his career, for the commemorations of the centenary of French Algeria, accompanied by a delegation of eight ministers and of several dozen deputies. The following year, a few weeks before the end of his mandate, he commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the
French protectorate of Tunisia.
Foreign policy of
Afghanistan,
Amanullah Khan (1928) In foreign policy, he declared himself in favour of a policy of firmness vis-à-vis
Germany in the face of resurgent nationalism in parts of Europe, but also in France. He ran into difficulties: the
Allies were unable to agree on Germany. Forced to evacuate the
Ruhr,
Saarland, and the
Rhineland between 1925 and 1930, Doumergue's France was also duped by the German Chancellor
Gustav Stresemann despite the signing of the
Locarno Treaties. Disagreements with his foreign minister, Aristide Briand, only aggravated the colonial crises in
Syria and the
Rif. After failed attempts at consultation by the prefect in place in
Morocco, Doumergue decided to send Marshall
Philippe Pétain, who quickly won the
Rif War. At the same time, he participated in the inauguration of the
Grand Mosque of Paris, with the Moroccan sultan
Moulay Youssef, who was on an official visit to France. On this occasion, he became the first French president to quote a
hadith: "the best Muslim is the one whose believers have neither hand nor tongue to fear". In French Indochina in the 1920s, the
Vietnamese nationalists of the
VNQDĐ maintained an independence agitation (
assassination of Alfred François Bazin,
Yên Bái mutiny, etc.) that colonial authorities repressed with rifle shots and
guillotines. In South America, he helped , the director of the
Compagnie générale aéropostale, obtain the postal contracts and flyover rights from Brazil and Argentina necessary for the operation of an air transport line.
Particularities of his presidency '' cover, 21 July 1924 Within such an unstable political world, Doumergue strove to support the management of public affairs in leftist values and a conservative guideline. An affable and courteous man, he seduced since the beginning of his political career with his good nature and his accent. After his election to the presidency of the Republic, his simplicity continued to earn him popularity in the public opinion, which is reflected in particular by his nickname of "Gastounet". Moreover, Doumergue's accession to the presidency of the Republic made him the only Protestant head of state known to France since the abjuration of
Henry IV, on 25 July 1593. He was also the second unmarried President of the French Republic when he took office, after
Napoleon III. Although an "old bachelor", he was nonetheless, according to historian , "sensitive to feminine charm", but his frequent passing liaisons were only the "Parisian manners of politicians". He maintained a long-term liaison with , an associate professor of the university. During his presidential mandate, he had breakfast with her at his former home at 73
Avenue de Wagram every morning, where he went on foot from the
Élysée Palace. On 1 June 1931, twelve days before the end of his mandate, he married Gaussal in front of the mayor of the
8th arrondissement of Paris, Gaston Drucker, who had come specially to the Élysée, with the secretary-general of the presidency, Jules Michel, as his witness. Doumergue thus became the first President of the Republic to marry during his mandate. His presidential mandate ended on 13 June 1931, and he retired from political life to his wife's home in
Tournefeuille, in
Haute-Garonne.
Return to Council Presidency (1934) Still popular, he was recalled as president of the council after the bloody events of
6 February 1934, to form a government of national unity where
André Tardieu and Édouard Herriot rubbed shoulders. After having positioned himself at the centre-left of the political spectrum during his first mandate, he gradually neared the centre-right Independent Radicals during his presidency. His goal was to reform institutions to reduce ministerial instability. This attempt did not succeed; in poor health, it was difficult for him to arbitrate within one of those cabinets in which the greatest hopes are generally placed because they symbolize the unity of the nation, but which are actually made up of ministers from all sides of the political spectrum who do not get along. There was, however, an upturn in public finances, which allowed the price of government bonds to gain ten to twelve points between March and June. He was also weakened by the assassination of
Louis Barthou on 9 October, and preferred to resign soon after, on 8 November.
René Viviani, who died in 1925, said of him: "In a well-organized democracy, Doumergue would be a justice of the peace in the provinces." ==Death and state funeral==