Charles FLOQUET
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President of the Council, President of the Chamber of Deputies.
Floquet, a lawyer from Béarn who came up to Paris, called out on 1 June 1867 to Tsar Alexander II as he walked through the Palais de Justice: “Vive la Pologne, Monsieur!” — long live Poland, Sir! Russia had just crushed the Polish insurrection, and the words went round Europe. President of the Council from 1888, he crossed swords with Boulanger and wounded the general with a sword-thrust to the neck. He died in 1896.
The story
A barrister from Béarn come up to Paris, Charles Floquet made his name at the bar defending republicans under the Second Empire. In June 1867, as Tsar Alexander II crossed the Salle des Pas-Perdus of the Palais de Justice, he called out from the ranks of the lawyers: “Vive la Pologne, Monsieur!” — long live Poland, sir. Russia had crushed the Polish insurrection four years before.
The phrase went round Europe and won him a lasting popularity. Mayor of the 11th arrondissement during the siege of Paris, he tried in 1871 to stand between the Commune and Versailles, which earned him imprisonment by both camps in turn.
Prefect of the Seine and then a radical deputy, he became president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1885, then president of the Council in April 1888. His government faced Boulangism: in July he fought a duel with General Boulanger and wounded him in the neck — a head of government of fifty-nine running through a general of fifty-one, before a France that saw in that general the strong man to come.
Carried off by the Panama scandal, he left public life and died in 1896. He lies in Division 66.
On site, do not miss
Division 66, one of the latest in the cemetery: its regular alleys and its Third Republic monuments contrast with the romantic disorder of the lower Divisions.
Visitors' questions
Where is Charles Floquet buried?
In Division 66 of Père-Lachaise, in the eastern part of the cemetery. Division 66 also holds the grave of the painter Georges Seurat and that of the engineer Adolphe Alphand, who made the Paris parks.
Georges SeuratWhy did Charles Floquet shout “Vive la Pologne”?
To protest against Russian repression. On 1 June 1867 Tsar Alexander II was visiting the Palais de Justice in Paris; Floquet, a young barrister, threw the words at him from the ranks — long live Poland — four years after the crushing of the Polish rising of 1863.
Political figures at Père-LachaiseDid Charles Floquet fight a duel?
He did, against General Boulanger, on 13 July 1888. President of the Council, fifty-nine years old and with no experience of arms, he wounded his fifty-one-year-old opponent in the neck. The military prestige of Boulangism never recovered.
Jules VallèsWhat was the Panama scandal?
The collapse, in 1892, of the Panama Canal company, which had bought the silence of members of parliament and of newspapers. The scandal carried off a good part of the political class of the Third Republic, Charles Floquet among them; he withdrew from public life.
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