René Goblet

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René Goblet

René Goblet (born November 26, 1828 in Aire-sur-la-Lys , Département Pas-de-Calais , † September 13, 1905 in Paris ) was a French politician and from 1886 to 1887 French Prime Minister.

After studying law, he co-founded the liberal journal Le Progrès de la Somme in the Second Empire .

Early political life

For the department of Somme , Goblet was elected a member of the National Assembly for the first time in July 1871, where he represented the radical socialists who were considered to be extremely left at the time . From 1876 to 1879 he was mayor of Amiens . Although he missed his re-entry into the Chamber of Deputies in 1876, he became a member of the National Assembly in 1877 and represented Amiens there.

After he took over a subordinate government role in 1879, he became Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Charles de Saulces de Freycinet in 1882 . In the governments of Brisson and Freycinet he was Minister for Public Education, the Arts and Religion from 1885 to 1886. He underlined his position as a defender of the government's educational tasks. Due to his independence and straightforwardness he alienated himself from many in his party and during the rest of his political life, starting with Léon Gambetta , was repeatedly in temporary conflict with his political partners.

Prime Minister and Schnäbele Affair

After the fall of the Freycinet government, Goblet himself became Prime Minister on December 11, 1886 and also took over the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Religion. However, his government was unpopular from the start, and it was difficult to find a foreign minister at all. This office was eventually entrusted to Émile Flourens .

The Schnäbele affair occurred during the short term in office of Prime Minister Goblet . On April 20, 1887, the French customs officer (possibly also station master in Pagny) Wilhelm Schnäbele, French Guillaume Schnæbelé (* 1831 in Eckbolsheim near Strasbourg, † December 5, 1900 in Nancy), was held by German officials at a service meeting on German soil arrested and imprisoned in Metz. This was justified with suspicion of espionage.

The French Minister of War, Georges Ernest Boulanger , used the incident to demand a retaliation for the defeat against Germany suffered in the Franco-Prussian War . A crisis arose in Franco-German relations, which could only be resolved after the release of Schnäbeles on August 29, 1887, ordered by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck . Here Goblet proved to be a procrastinator, who did not make a decision for a few days, and left it to Foreign Minister Flourens, who advocated peace, to deal with War Minister Boulanger. Even if Goblet eventually accepted Flourens' point of view, weakness in the face of the Secretary of War's strong opinion posed a national threat.

Following the defeat on the budget, Goblet resigned on May 30, 1887.

Later political life and withdrawal from politics

A year later (1888) Goblet returned to a government for the last time and took over the foreign ministry in the cabinet of the radical Charles Floquet as successor to Gustave Flourens. In the election to the National Assembly in 1889, he was beaten by a candidate from the Boulanger Party. After a short time in the Senate from 1891 to 1893, he became a member of the National Assembly again.

Together with Édouard Locroy , Ferdinand Sarrien and Paul Peytral , he published a republican program in the Petite Republique Francaise newspaper . In the election to the National Assembly in 1898, however, he lost again and then largely withdrew from politics.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Goblet, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Aire-sur-la-Lys
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1905
Place of death Paris