Le Figaro
- THE CARTEL CONDEMNED BY THE SOCIALISTS
- THE PRESS ACROSS THE RHINE AND MR POINCARÉ
- TO GOVERN IS TO FORESEE
Le Figaro’s selected columns addressed political authority at home, reconciliation abroad and changes to administrative geography. Gascoin attacked the contradictions he saw in Herriot’s defence against Lyon’s socialists, especially his appeal to legality. Mallet interpreted German reactions to Poincaré through domestic political divisions and hopes for relief from occupation. Cassagnac saw the consolidation of prefectural councils as a consequential step towards regional organisation.
This edition covers the recoverable continuous text in the three supplied excerpts, not the complete front page or complete articles. The first readable passage begins mid-sentence and ends after “dans sa”; the second ends after “soit par la”. The translations preserve these incomplete boundaries without reconstructing missing content. Unintelligible OCR fragments surrounding the readable passages, including fragments marked [?], cannot be translated reliably and are omitted. Their column of origin cannot always be established from the supplied text. The external evidence supports the Rhineland context but does not establish the separate responses of all three German press currents to both speeches.
Translation
THE CARTEL CONDEMNED BY THE SOCIALISTS
…the liberals united in the Left Bloc solely to carry out the wishes of a party which, although it holds a majority of the seats on Lyon’s municipal council, is still only a minority in the country.
Mr Herriot will not yield. He pleaded his case before Lyon’s municipal councillors. He invoked his conscience, his struggles, his sufferings. He even appealed to the people and the law. The same man who unconstitutionally forced a president of the Republic to resign now resorts to legality against those attacking him today. What a reversal of fortune, and what an indictment of the policy that was his own only yesterday!
How many times since 11 May have we experienced those moments when, as Mr Herriot says, “doctrines were powerless against a catastrophe drawing closer hour by hour,” and yet, in government deliberations, the sole concern was to accommodate the worst demagogic utopias against which the country had pronounced itself?
The mayor of Lyon exclaimed in his—
E. Gascoin.
THE PRESS ACROSS THE RHINE AND MR POINCARÉ
The reactions provoked in the German press by Mr Poincaré’s two latest speeches, though doubtless different in tone, appear fairly uniform in substance. They have naturally followed the pressures of domestic politics. At present, opinion among our neighbours across the Rhine is divided into three broad currents: governmental, socialist and nationalist. The “small coalition” that has kept the Marx cabinet alive consists of the Centre Party, the Democrats and the People’s Party. Favourable to Franco-German rapprochement, it intends to extract the greatest possible advantages from it, whether through the liberation of the occupied territories or through—
Alfred Mallet.
TO GOVERN IS TO FORESEE
By PAUL DE CASSAGNAC
This modest reform of the prefectural councils, which we discussed in a previous article, has far-reaching implications. Most of them are being abolished, and the departments are being grouped in sets of four, five or six around those that remain. The prefectural council, a departmental body, becomes a regional body. It is another step towards organising the Region, and another breach in the departmental framework. The Region is establishing itself as the foundation of administrative reform, as was foreseen.
Context
National cooperation fractured Herriot’s municipal alliance
Herriot’s cooperation with Poincaré brought a national political dispute into Lyon’s council chamber. The Journal du Lot of 10 September 1926 reported that socialist councillors presented a motion withdrawing confidence because of that cooperation; it passed by 30 votes to 26. Herriot refused to resign at the majority’s demand and said he would take the dispute to the voters if it made his work impossible. The conflict therefore concerned both political allegiance and who could judge his right to remain in office. This explains the stakes behind Gascoin’s insistence that Herriot would stand firm and his attack on Herriot’s appeal to legality. Gascoin turns the municipal rupture into an indictment of the Left Cartel.
Occupied territory gave rapprochement a concrete purpose
Mallet identifies governmental, socialist and nationalist currents, while suggesting that their reactions differed more in tone than substance. His concrete example is the governing coalition’s desire to secure the liberation of occupied territory. An earlier statement by Stresemann, carried in a Cologne-dated report of 22 September 1926 in the German social-democratic press, placed the Rhineland at the centre of his concerns during the Thoiry discussions. Addressing the Rhineland’s population, he linked those diplomatic efforts to its loyalty and sacrifices. This helps explain the territorial stakes in Mallet’s account: for the governing coalition as he presents it, rapprochement offered a means of obtaining tangible benefits, including release from occupation.
Consolidation also changed administrative justice
Cassagnac interprets larger prefectural-council districts as a political opening for regional organisation. The institutional change also concerned judicial staffing and independence. The Conseil d’État’s 2023 historical account records the replacement of 86 councils, with the Seine excepted, by 22 interdepartmental councils, and a reduction in councillor posts from 258 to 110. The new councils had presidents and government commissioners who no longer belonged to the prefecture’s active administration, although prefects retained powers over councillors’ performance assessments. The reform thus combined territorial consolidation, fewer posts and greater separation from the administration. These institutional changes explain why Cassagnac could see such substantial consequences in a seemingly modest reorganisation, while his prediction about the Region extended the argument to the wider administrative map.
Original
LE CARTEL CONDAMNÉ PAR LES SOCIALISTES
ours ic é a reçu. ar-le-Duc, ges et un us avons s s'appliles dépenrien; les es et bienngs à trois es concer -: les sela polime monoe adminis -, de prot et qu'il fondre la acquis que ression de les libéraux réunis dans le Bloc des gauches, uniquement pour y accomplir les volontés, d'un parti qui, s'il détient la majorité des sièges au Conseil municipal lyonnais, n'est encore qu'une minorité dans le pays. M. Herriot ne cédera pas. Il a plaidé sa cause devant les conseillers municipaux de Lyon. Il a invoqué sa conscience, ses luttes, ses souffrances. Il a même fait appel au peuple et à la loi. Le même homme qui a obligé d'une manière inconstitutionnelle un président de la République à se retirer, a recours à la légalité contre ceux qui l'attaquent aujourd'hui. Quel retour du destin et quel réquisitoire pour ce qui, hier encore, était sa politique! Combien de fois depuis le 11 mai avonsnous connu de ces moments où, comme dit M. Herriot, «les doctrines étaient sans force contre une catastrophe qui d'heure en heure approchait», et où, pourtant, dans les conseils du gouvernement, on ne pensait qu'à composer avec les pires utopies démagogiques contre lesquelles s'était prononcé le pays? Le maire de Lyon s'est écrié dans sa économ le suiv [?] de de loi voudra l'adjon mule d les nat nations on se ments rieure. ni Lon faut ve de la le Fon [?] militai visé en pement venir e dissent diants militai plus a montez que tin europé
LA PRESSE D'OUTRE-RHIN ET M. POINCARÉ
MNÉ ES la Réaccomp s gauuté par nicipal. e Lyon, Cabinet i, pour intérêts phétoédience pour la socialmédiaicartel. LA PRESSE D'OUTRE-RHIN ET M. POINCARÉ Les réactions provoquées dans la presse allemande par les deux derniers discours de M. Poincaré, différentes sans doute par le ton, apparaissent dans le fond assez uniformes. Elles ont obéi, comme il était naturel, aux poussées mêmes de la politique intérieure. A l'heure actuelle, l'opinion chez nos voisins d'outre-Rhin est traversée par trois grands courants: gouvernemental, socialiste, nationaliste. La «petite coalition» qui a permis au cabinet Marx de vivre se compose du centre, des démocrates, des populistes. Favorable au rapprochement franco-allemand, elle entend en soutirer le maximum d'avantages, soit par la libération des territoires occupés, soit par la d'une mi français malgré construc a vain te Nous a que M. C s'en teni personne dans des longtemp sur des Aussi bureaux nouvelle encore, ment en fois, ave plus imp On ne faire d [?] veaux. Il les mari pour la s
GOUVERNER, C'EST PREVOIR
angères ement. le nos ail leur mois, ai pas quer le avillon depuis er que ns aux er une ement récom -, cette ases et stre de s noule pour agande GOUVERNER, C'EST PREVOIR Par PAUL DE CASSAGNAC Cette modeste réforme des Conseils de Préfecture, dont nous parlions dans un précédent article, est grosse de conséquences. On supprime la plupart d'entre eux, et autour de ceux qui demeurent, on répartit les départements par lots de quatre, cinq ou six. Le Conseil de Préfecture, organe départemental, devient organe régional. C'est un pas de plus vers l'organisation de la Région, et une brèche nouvelle dans le cadre du département. La Région s'affirme à la base de la réforme administrative, comme il était prévu.