Émile Loubet

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism France France 1838–1929 ○ Natural causes

President of the Dreyfus pardon, the Entente Cordiale and the separation of church and state

Born in 1838 at Marsanne in the Drôme to a family of peasant proprietors, he practised law at Montélimar. In 1870 he became mayor of Montélimar and a steady supporter of Gambetta; elected deputy in 1876, he was one of the 363 who voted no confidence in the Broglie ministry during the crisis of 16 May 1877. He entered the Senate in 1885, and as president of the council and minister of the interior from February to December 1892 he arbitrated the Carmaux strike, but fell over the Panama scandal. After becoming president of the Senate in 1896, he defeated Jules Méline for the presidency in February 1899 and called on Waldeck-Rousseau to form the cabinet that settled the Dreyfus affair with a pardon. His term saw the Entente Cordiale of 1904 and the vote on the separation of church and state in 1905, and in 1906 he became the first president of the Third Republic to complete a full term.

Also known as: Émile François Loubet

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