Gastounet, un mythe annonciateur?
Institution:
Montpellier 3Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
Gaston doumergue always refused to write his memoirs, lending himself unwillingly to biographers. Nonetheless he deserves historial interest from several points of view. His career was among the most brilliant ones and only poincare held as many posts. It can be explained, in fact, by the succession of two myths that he incarnated in turn. The firt "gastounet" had him typed as the ideal president such as the french imagined him then. With the second, we witness the alchemy of a myth. To the smiling myth, slightly ridiculous, succeeds a tragic one, that of the savior to whom appeals in time of crisis. Avoiding civil war, gaston doumergue enjoyed great popularity which he could not exploit in order to reform the state. On the contrary, his popularity alarmed political circles who saw in his radio appeals the first signs of a personal advendure. This alarm was unjustified if one considers his ambitions, it was legitimate in terms of the ideological content of his speeches. By their anti parliamentarism and by the values they expressed, they are already marked by a kind of pre-petainism to which part of france adhered. We witness in fact a rehearsal of the events of 1940 in which many of the future actors of vichy france participated.
Abstract FR:
Gaston doumergue a toujours refuse d'ecrire ses memoires, se pretant de mauvaise grace a ce que d'autres lui consacrent une biographie. Pourtant, il merite a plusieurs titres que les historiens s'interessent a lui. Sa carriere est une des plus brillantes, et seul poincare a occupe autant de magistratures. En fait, elle s'explique par la succession de deux mythes qu'il a tour a tour incarnes. Le premier "gastounet", fait de lui le type ideal du president de la republique tel que les francais le souhaitent alors. Avec le second, nous assistons a une alchimie du mythe. Au mythe souriant, un peu ridicule, succede un mythe tragique, celui du sauveur auquel on a recours durant les temps de crise. Evitant la guerre civile, gaston doumergue jouit alors d'une grande popularite, qu'il ne peut mettre a profit pour faire aboutir la reforme de l'etat. Au contraire, cette popularite inquiete les milieux politiques qui voient dans ses appels a la radio, les premices d'une aventure personnelle. Inquietude injustifiee, si l'on considere sa seule ambition, mais en revanche legitime par le contenu ideologique que vehiculent ses discours. Par leur antiparlementarisme et les valeurs qu'ils expriment ils sont deja l'expression d'une sorte de repetition generale des evenements de 1940, a laquelle participent deja bien des acteurs futurs de la franche de vichy.