Georges Bidault (5 October 1899 – 27 January 1983) was Prime Minister of France from 24 June to 16 December 1946 (succeeding Felix Gouin and preceding Leon Blum) and from 28 October 1949 to 2 July 1950 (interrupting Henri Queuille's two terms). He was a member of the Christian democratic MRP party.
Biography[]
Georges Bidault was born in Moulins, Allier, France on 5 October 1899, and he became a college history professor and a left-wing and anti-fascist journalist. He joined the French Resistance in 1941 and succeeded Jean Moulin as leader of the National Resistance Council in 1943. After the Liberation of France in 1944, he co-founded the Christian democratic MRP, and he served as its chairman from 1949 to 1952. Bidault also served as Foreign Minister from 1494 to 1946, from 1947 to 1948, and from 1953 to 1954. He was responsible for the 1947 transition of French policy towards Germany, from Charles de Gaulle's initial hardline stance to Maurice Schumann's conciliatory attitude. His opposition to De Gaulle became more vociferous in 1959, when he opposed his policies to end the Algerian War. He became President of the Union for French Algeria and an executive member of the OAS, and he went into exile in Brazil in 1963 and then to Belgium, but he returned in 1968. He died in Cambo-les-Bains, France in 1983 at the age of 83.