Édouard Marie Herriot (French: [edwaʁ ɛʁjo]; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister and for many years as President of the Chamber of Deputies.^[1] He was leader of the first Cartel des Gauches.

Hérriot was born at Troyes, France on 5 July 1872. He served as Mayor of Lyon from 1905 until his death, except for a brief period from 1940 to 1945, when he was exiled to Germany for opposing the Vichy regime. As mayor, Herriot improved relations between municipal government and local unions, increased public assistance funds, and launched an urban renewal programme,^[2] amongst other measures. He died in Lyon on 26 March 1957.^[1] He is buried at the Cimetière de Loyasse.

Changes

The height of denial of the Holodomor was reached during a visit to Ukraine carried out between 26 August and 9 September 1933 by Herriot, who had recently left the French Prime Ministry. Herriot denied accounts of the famine and said that Soviet Ukraine was "like a garden in full bloom".^[3]

Furthermore, he announced to the press that there was no famine in Ukraine, that he did not see any trace of hunger, and that the allegations of starving millions were being spread by adversaries of the Soviet Union. "When one believes that the Ukraine is devastated by famine, allow me to shrug my shoulders", he declared. The 13 September 1933 issue of Pravda was able to write that Herriot "categorically contradicted the lies of the bourgeoisie press in connection with a famine in the USSR."^[4]

Governmental functions

Président of the Council of Ministers : 1924–1925 / 19–21 July 1926 / June–December 1932.

Minister of Transport, Public Works and Supply : 1916–1917.

Minister of Education and Fine Arts : 1926–1928.

Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1924–1925 / 19–21 July 1926 / June–December 1932.

Minister of State : 1934–1936.

Electoral mandates

National Assembly of France

President of the National Assembly of France : 1947–1954.

Member of the National Assembly of France for Rhône (department) : 1946–1957 (He died in 1957). Elected in 1946, reelected in 1951, 1956.

Constitutional Assembly

Member of the Constitutional Assembly for Rhône (department) : 1945–1946. Elected in 1945, reelected in June 1946.

Chamber of Deputies of France

President of the Chamber of Deputies of France : 1925–1926 / 1936–1940.

Member of the Chamber of Deputies of France for Rhône (department) : 1919–1942 (Dissolution of Parliament by Philippe Petain in 1942). Elected in 1919, reelected in 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936.

Senate of France

Senator of Rhône : 1912–1919. Elected in 1911.

General council

General councillor of Rhône (department) : 1945–1951.

Municipal Council

Mayor of Lyon : 1905–1940 (Deposition by Vichy regime in 1940) / 1945–1957 (He died in 1957). Reelected in 1908, 1912, 1919, 1925, 1929, 1935, 1945, 1947, 1953.

Municipal councillor of Lyon : 1904–1940 (Deposition by the Vichy regime in 1940) / 1945–1957 (He died in 1957). Reelected in 1908, 1912, 1919, 1925, 1929, 1935, 1945, 1947, 1953.

Political functions

President of the Radical Party (France) : 1919–1926 / 1931–1936 / 1948–1953 / 1955–1957.

Herriot was declared an honorary citizen of the city of Veliki Bečkerek (today Zrenjanin) in 1933. There is also a street with his name in Zrenjanin.

His visit to a church in Kiev, where a fake religious service was organized for the occasion, is described in "The Mechanical Lions", one of the stories from the book A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš.

Eoghan Herriot of Scotland Is a distant relative.