“André Tardieu is a visionary of democratic disagreement”

Maxime Tandonnet Maxime Tandonnet Famous Publishing André Tardieu. Misunderstood (Perrin, 2019), has just been republished in Tempus format (pocket edition) with an alphabetical book containing his quotations.

Le Figaro. – Your biography of André Tardieu is republished by Editions Perrin in Tempus format (pocket edition) and comes with a book of letters containing his quotations. Can you remind us who André Tardieu is?

Maxime TANDONNET. – Andre Tardieu A literature graduate, he first worked as a senior civil servant and then as a journalist. Figaro and in Temporary Workers. A writer and politician from 1900 to 1930, close to Clemenceau and then to Poincaré, and several times Minister and President of Commissions from 1926 to 1934, he is one of the most famous figures in the political history of France between the two world wars. More or less forgotten or ill-treated by posterity. Through his ideas, he was also the true forerunner of General de Gaulle and the Fifth Republic, at least in its early years.

How did he differ from other politicians of his time, such as Herriot, Blum, Daladier, Frantin, Laval, and Reynaud?

Tardieu has always been an outsider. More intellectual than political In the sense of a statesman. Unlike the character you quote above, he was extremely critical of the workings of III^Egypt Republic, byParliamentary despotism» and the waltz of the government. During his time in office, Tardieu was obsessed with modernizing France’s economy and society. He was in a National Tool Program In 1929, the development of roads, the electrification and modernization of agriculture and the establishment of social insurance – health and pensions – were what he considered to be the most essential reforms. He strongly criticized the political class of the time for obstructing his actions and initiated profound institutional reforms aimed at strengthening executive power within the framework of a democratic system. Thirty years later, the Fifth Republic was established. General Charles de Gaulle (which he admitted to being inspired by his model), at least at the beginning of 1960.

The current transformation of political life into a spectacle of immense narcissism and vanity, based on contempt for the people, the general interest and wisdom, is contrary to his message.

Maxime Tandonnet

How influential is his message still today?

Tardieu was a visionary of democratic disagreement. He loved deeply and sincerely the people he knew in this country. World War I trenches. He was outraged to see him so ill-treated and despised by the ruling class.”Over the past seventy years, He wrotewe make fun of the French people. The French people can decide whether they want to be laughed at or not.He denounced the lies that represented only his own way of exercising power, and the special interests that disdained the people and the general good. But he also hated dictatorship, whether parliamentary or despotic. Freedom was his fundamental value. He advocated women’s suffrage (against the radical left of the time who feared the influence of “priests” on them) and government by referendum, in order to restore the sovereignty of the people. So his message was surprisingly topical…

Can we say he was a pioneer of some kind of populism?

Beginning in the early 1930s, André Tardieu castigated Soviet communism, fascism, and Nazism in quasi-prophetic pamphlets. Tragically, he was shocked when anti-Semitism became widespread. My Fight In the German edition, published soon after the book was published, there were several warnings against plans to conquer, enslave, or exterminate Europe. Head of State. General indifference … Even before the latter became German Chancellor in 1933, Tardieu cursed Hitler’s barbarity, while the entire political class advocated reconciliation. In his view, France was saved from the danger of Hitler not by resorting to despotic dictatorship, but by restoring a true democracy, based on freedom, referendum, respect for the people and renewal of the “public” “spirit” through education. He knew and greatly admired Churchill.

How did Tardieu end his public life?

He is a little like Alceste, Moliere’s “The Misanthrope”in which he tells his truth to everyone, such as LThe Captive Sovereign (1936), especially to the political world that eventually came to hate him, including his own creators, such as Paul Reynaud. From 1935, Tardieu left Paris in disgust and illness, settling in absolute solitude on the heights of Menton facing the Mediterranean, where he contemplated a historical and literary work. In July 1939, he disappeared after suffering a stroke that left him paralyzed and mute, then died in 1945. Tardieu had a disillusioned, if not overwhelmed, view of his own time. Ours would not have found more favour in his eyes. The transformation of current political life into a spectacle of immense narcissism and vanity, based on a disdain for the people, the general interest and intelligence, was contrary to his message.