born June 18, 1884, Carpentras, France
died Oct. 10, 1970, Paris
French politician.
He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919 as a member of the Radical Party, served in several different cabinets, and formed short-lived governments in 1933 and 1934. As premier (1938–40), he sought to avoid war by signing the Munich agreement . Arrested after France fell to Germany in World War II, he was imprisoned by the Germans until 1945. After the war he returned to the Chamber of Deputies (1946–58).