Eugene Henri Brisson French politician Date of Birth: 31.07.1835 Country: France

Biography of Eugène Henri Brisson

Eugène Henri Brisson was a French political figure who served as the Prime Minister of France twice, although both times for less than a year (1885, 1898, the second time during the Dreyfus affair). He studied law in Paris and became a lawyer in 1859. At the same time, he collaborated with the newspapers "Temps" and "Avenir national". In 1868, he co-founded the "Revue politique" with Shalmeel-Lacour and Allen Targe, but the journal was banned in the same year.

After the events of September 4, 1870, Brisson served in the office of the Mayor of Paris until October 31 of the same year. On February 8, 1871, he was elected as a deputy for the Sens department in the National Assembly. In September 1871, he proposed a motion on behalf of the extreme left for a general amnesty for political offenders. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Brisson belonged to the "Union républicaine" from 1876. In 1879, he was elected as the second vice-president of the Chamber and the president of the budget committee. In November 1881, he became the president of the Chamber, replacing Gambetta.

In 1885, after the fall of Ferry, Brisson became the head of a new government. However, after the Chamber narrowly approved his proposal for a credit of 79 million francs for the Tonkin expedition, he resigned. He was considered one of the prominent figures of the moderate-republican party. From 1894 to 1898, he served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies.

In 1895, Brisson ran for the presidency of the republic but received 361 votes (against 480 received by the victorious Fauré). In the summer of 1898, he was replaced by moderate republican Paul Deschanel. However, when the Melin ministry fell two weeks later, the President offered Brisson to form a cabinet, which he accepted. His cabinet consisted mainly of radicals, some of whom had recently leaned towards nationalism, as well as moderate republicans. Thus, it was another left-leaning Republican concentration cabinet, similar to Brisson's first cabinet. The government pledged to carry out tax reform and provide workers with accident insurance. However, it did not have time to fulfill either of these promises, as its time in office was occupied by the Dreyfus affair.

Brisson initially did not have a definite view on the Dreyfus affair. Members of his cabinet were divided between Dreyfusards (such as Bourgeois) and anti-Dreyfusards (such as Cavagnac and Lockroy). The arrest of Colonel Henry, who admitted to fabricating the Schwarzkoppen letter, which was considered the main evidence of Dreyfus' guilt by War Minister Cavagnac, led to Cavagnac's resignation and his replacement by General Cissey. From that moment, the entire ministry, including Brisson, became firm supporters of overturning Dreyfus' verdict and conducting a new review of the case. However, Cissey opposed everything that Brisson did to achieve this goal, which led to Cissey's resignation on September 17. He was replaced by General Chanoine.

Chanoine sided with his predecessors, and on October 25, he resigned. This led to the fall of the cabinet.

In 1904, Brisson was again elected as the President of the Chamber. In 1905, he was nominated for the same position again, but he was not elected. Paul Doumer was chosen instead.