Henri Debidour

Henri Debidour (* 28. November 1907 in Sarlat-la-Caneda , † 17th June 1990 in Nîmes ) was a French politician, member of the first and second Constituent National Assembly of the Fourth French Republic for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon .

Youth and World War II

Debidour studied medicine in Paris and Harvard . At the start of World War II, he became a lieutenant-Médecin ( Under medical officer ) convened . When France, after the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, sent an expedition corps to northern Norway to retake Narvik together with Norwegian and Polish troops , he volunteered for the Chasseurs alpins assigned to this corps . In 1942 he was awarded the highest order in Norway, the War Cross with Sword , for his service there .

After France's defeat in the western campaign , he escaped to England in June 1940 and joined the Free French Naval Forces ( Forces navales françaises libres, FNFL ) in September under the pseudonym “Monrad” . He subsequently served as medical officer and chief of the medical service of the FNFL in Scotland (1940 and 1941), in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (July 1942 to August 1944) and finally as naval chief doctor in Algiers (from August 1944).

Political career

National Constituent Assembly

In 1944 Debidour became a member of the Provisional Consultative National Assembly in Paris, where he participated in the committees for the French overseas territories, for home affairs and for health, labor and social affairs. In the elections for the first constituent national assembly (October 21, 1945 - June 10, 1946) he was elected on November 4, 1945 in the second ballot as a representative of the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. He joined the “Résistance démocratique et socialiste” faction, which later became the UDSR . There he was chairman of the Committee on Family, Population and Health and a member of the Committee on Communications Media, Post, Telegraph and Telephone. On April 19, 1946, Debidour, like the majority of his parliamentary group, voted against the draft constitution , which was then rejected in a plebiscite on May 5 . In the election for the second constituent national assembly (June 2, 1946 - November 27, 1946), he was re-elected with a narrow majority. He became chairman of the Committee on Family, Population and Health and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Contrary to the recommendation of his parliamentary group, Démocratique et socialiste de la Résistance, he also voted against the new draft constitution on September 29, 1946.

National Legislative Assembly

In the election for the First National Legislative Assembly of the Fourth Republic , Debidour was narrowly defeated by his only opponent, Dominique Antoine Laurelli of the MRP . Debidour accused Laurelli of offering voters money for their votes. On May 23, 1947, when the official election report was published, Henry Noguères stated that there had been no electoral fraud, but that the MRP candidate had committed a crime that was likely to have influenced the election result. In fact, Laurelli had claimed on the radio on November 7, 1946 that the administration - whose official candidate was Debidour - had misappropriated $ 15,000 of the food supply to the islands to repair a cold store, and that it did the Endangering the supply of milk and butter to the islands. In view of the immense emotions this news caused in the population, the island administration had to deny that the deliveries were at risk. But the next day Laurelli read a telegram on the radio from Administrator Marchand to the Minister in Paris, in which he reported the repair of the cold store. This reading violated the law of June 15, 1938, which protected communications by radio. Noguères concluded that Laurelli's choice was invalid. At the request of the UDSR, the election was canceled by the National Assembly with 227 votes to 175. However, the National Assembly spoke out against the referral to the Ministry of Justice. In the new election on September 28, 1947, Laurelli won with a margin of 22 out of 2,276 votes cast.

Debidour then withdrew from political life.

Web links

• Assemblée nationale: Henri DEBIDOUR (1907-1990) (French)
• Les Français Libres: Henri Debidour, alias Monrad (French)