François Var

François Var (born February 26, 1888 in Ussel , Département Corrèze , † July 15, 1972 ibid) was a French politician of the SFIO . From 1958 to 1967 he was a member of the National Assembly .

Life and career

Early life and entry into politics

Var went to school in Clermont-Ferrand and Tulle before studying law in the French capital, Paris . After graduating, he returned to his hometown of Ussel and was admitted to the local bar in April 1910. With the beginning of the First World War he was drafted into the military in August 1914 and was able to earn the rank of captain in the course of the fighting . For his services he was awarded the military medal and the Croix de guerre and was accepted into the Legion of Honor .

Following the war, he got into politics when he was elected to the Ussel city council on November 30, 1919. For the left-liberal Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste , he entered the council of the Arrondissement of Ussel in 1922 , but a little later he joined the socialist party SFIO. In 1925 he ran unsuccessfully for the General Council of the Corrèze department and made it into this in 1931 in the second attempt. On December 1, 1934, he was elected mayor of Ussel, which he remained until 1965. In the parliamentary elections in 1936 he stood for the socialists in the constituency around the city, but withdrew in the second ballot in favor of the eventual winner Marius Vazeilles . In 1938 he was also unsuccessful when he tried to get a seat in the Senate . Within the party, he made it to the office of the SFIO in the Corrèze department in 1939.

Second World War

Even though he was initially allowed to continue his office as mayor under the German occupation and the resulting Vichy regime during the Second World War , despite his membership of the socialist party, he was arrested by the Gestapo in June 1943 and remained there until September 29 Year in prison. He was then allowed to return to his position as mayor, but remained the focus of police investigations. The suspicion that he supported the resistance fighters Maquisards could not be proven and was dropped. Because Var had received Philippe Pétain, the head of the interim government in Ussel, during the occupation , he was expelled from the SFIO for one year by resolution of February 16, 1945. This was withdrawn around two months later and he was able to run again in the service of his party in the local elections in the spring.

Activity in national politics

In 1945 Var managed to return to the General Council, where he was represented until 1967. After running for Senate and Parliament before the war, he did not take part in national elections until he was elected in the 1958 parliamentary elections in the third constituency of the Corrèze department. Despite his membership in the SFIO, he expressed his support for the new constitution introduced in the same year and for the Conservative President Charles de Gaulle . In the second ballot he was able to prevail with 57.5% against his communist competitor, whereby he profited from the withdrawal of all other candidates who had reached the second round. In the National Assembly he was a member of two parliamentary groups that dealt with legal issues. In October 1962, at the side of his group colleagues, he expressed his distrust of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou , but the latter remained in office. In the elections in November 1962, he was able to prevail against the communist candidate with a lead of 880 votes and thus secure his re-election. Once again, he mainly dealt with legal issues, but also campaigned intensively for local matters and interests. In 1965 he withdrew from the local elections after the first round and thus gave up his mayor's office. The then 79-year-old did not run again in the 1967 parliamentary elections, thus completing his retirement from politics. Var, who was married with one daughter, died on July 15, 1972 at the age of 84.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Base de données historique des anciens députés , assemblee-nationale.fr