Camille Chautemps

Chautemps, Camille (kämēˈyə shōtäNˈ) [key], 1885–1963, French politician. A Radical Socialist leader, he was premier in 1930 and in 1933–34, when the Stavisky Affair (in which he was not directly implicated) caused his resignation. A member of the first Popular Front cabinet of Socialists and Communists (1936–37) under Léon Blum, he headed the second, less radical, Popular Front cabinet (1937–38). Vice premier of the Vichy government, Chautemps came (1940) to the United States on a mission and did not return to France. He was subsequently expelled from the Radical party. In 1947 he was tried and convicted in absentia for collaborating with the Vichy regime. In 1954 his sentence was voided by the statute of limitations.


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