Alexandre Millerand

Millerand was a lawyer who entered politics on the left, but in 1899 he joined Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet alongside the Marquis de Galliffet, the man who had directed the brutal repression of the 1871 Paris Commune. The decision detonated a crisis in the French Section of the Workers' International and the Second International over whether socialists could serve in bourgeois governments. By 1912 he was Poincaré's war minister, then returned to the post during World War I's first year, shaping French strategy. After Clemenceau fell in 1920, Millerand formed his own cabinet, holding both the premiership and Foreign Affairs, then moved up to the presidency later that year. He served until 1924, when he openly backed conservative candidates in the elections; the victorious left majority forced him out. He spent the rest of his life on the margins.