born June 28, 1883, Châteldon, France
died Oct. 15, 1945, Paris
French politician.
A member of the Chamber of Deputies (1914–19, 1924–27) and later the Senate (from 1927), he also held a number of cabinet posts, and, as France's premier (1931–32, 1935–36), he developed the widely denounced Hoare-Laval Pact . In 1940, as minister of state in Vichy France ), he began negotiations with the Germans on his own initiative, which aroused suspicion. Pétain soon dismissed him, but in 1942 he returned as head of the government. He agreed to provide French labourers for German industries and announced in a speech that he desired a German victory. In 1945 he was tried and executed as a traitor to France.