Pierre Laval

Biography

Pierre Laval was born in 1883 in Châteldon in the Auvergne, where his father kept a café. He finished secondary school at the lycée Saint-Louis in Paris, joined socialist circles in 1903 and from 1909 practised law, making his name defending strikers and trade unionists against prosecution. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Seine as a Socialist in 1914, he held to pacifist positions during the First World War.

After losing his seat in 1919 he let his Socialist membership lapse, became mayor of Aubervilliers in 1923, returned to the Chamber as an independent in 1924 and moved to the Senate in 1927. He served as minister of public works, justice and labour, steering a social insurance law through parliament in 1930, and was prime minister from January 1931 to February 1932.

As foreign minister from October 1934 he sought partners against Germany, signing an agreement with Mussolini in January 1935 and the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance treaty in May. He became prime minister again in June 1935, but the leaked Hoare-Laval plan to end the Abyssinia crisis on Italy's terms caused an outcry and he resigned in January 1936.

After the defeat of 1940 he served as Philippe Pétain's deputy until Pétain dismissed him that December, and from April 1942 to August 1944 he was head of government at Vichy, directing its collaboration with Nazi Germany. He fled to Spain in 1945 but was handed back to France, condemned for treason after a hasty trial, and shot at Fresnes Prison in October 1945 after a failed suicide attempt.