Doumergue, Gaston [key], 1863–1937, president of the French republic (1924–31). He entered national politics in 1893 as a Radical Socialist deputy and served in various cabinets before and during World War I. After serving as president he retired, but when the cabinet of Édouard Daladier fell in Feb., 1934, as a result of the Stavisky Affair, Doumergue was called on to be the “strong man” of France and to restore order. Premier of a coalition cabinet, he asked for extraordinary powers to meet the financial and political crises. These demands caused the fall of his cabinet, which was succeeded (Nov., 1934) by another under P. E. Flandin.
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