Guy Mollet

French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) Social democracy 1905–1975 ○ Heart attack

SFIO leader for twenty-three years and premier behind the Suez invasion and repression in Algeria

Born in Flers, Normandy, in 1905, the son of a textile worker, he became an English teacher in Arras and joined the SFIO in 1923. Taken prisoner in 1940, he was released and joined the Resistance. In 1945 he became mayor of Arras and a member of the Constituent Assembly, and in 1946 he won the post of secretary-general of the party against Daniel Mayer, Blum's candidate, leading it until 1969. The Republican Front victory made him President of the Council in February 1956, but after a violent reception from the European population in Algiers he turned to a policy of repression. In October–November 1956 he joined Britain and Israel in attacking Egypt in the Suez Crisis, and he left office in May 1957. He joined the new Socialist Party in 1969, devoted himself to theoretical work, and died of a heart attack in Paris in 1975.