Jean Paul Pierre Casimir-Périer

Born Nov. 8, 1847, in Paris; died there Mar. 11, 1907. French statesman from a family of bankers. Member of the French Chamber of Deputies from 1876 to 1894; vice-president of the chamber from 1890 to 1892 and president of the chamber from 1893 to 1894. Undersecretary for education from 1877 to 1879. Undersecretary for war from 1883 to 1885. Prime minister from December 1893 to May 1894.

Casimir-Périer represented the interests of the big bourgeoisie and fought the growing working-class movement of the end of the 19th century. An enemy of democracy, he supported the “villainous legislation” directed against the press (1893), the Dreyfus conviction, and similar measures. After Sadi Carnot was assassinated, Casimir-Périer became the president of the republic in June 1894. The opposition of democratic French forces to the “president of reaction” caused him to resign and subsequently withdraw from political life.