Marx Dormoy

After six years living in northern Paris, I am taking some time to discover who are the people my streets have been talking about for so long.

Stamp by Jean Pheulpin.

Marx Dormoy, mayor of Montluçon (center France) and president of the General Council of Allier, was a member of the French Parliament in the 1930s. He was named Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government. In this position, he fought againt far right movements like La Cagoule, whose members assassinated him in 1941.

Closer to the 18th arrondissement of Paris where a metro station is named after him, he used his power to depose the mayor of Saint-Denis, Jacques Doriot, a communist who became a fascist and collaborationist.

To end this too-short summary, Dormoy was among the 80 Members of Parliament who refused to vote the full powers Marshall Pétain asked for in June 1940. His assassination took place while in surveyed residence in Montélimar.