René Goblet

Who was René Goblet?

René Goblet was a French politician, Prime Minister of France for a period in 1886–1887.

He was born at Aire-sur-la-Lys, Pas-de-Calais and was trained in law. Under the Second Empire, he helped found a Liberal journal, Le Progrès de la Somme, and in July 1871 he was sent by the département of the Somme to the National Assembly, where he took his place on the extreme left. Having failed to secure election in 1876, he was returned for Amiens the following year. He held a minor government office in 1879, and in 1882 became minister of the interior in the Freycinet cabinet. He was minister of education, fine arts and religion in Henri Brisson's first cabinet in 1885, and again under Freycinet in 1886, when he greatly increased his reputation by an able defence of the government's education proposals.

Meanwhile his independence and outspokenness had alienated him from many of his party, and throughout his life he was frequently in conffict with his political associates, from Léon Gambetta downwards. On the fall of the Freycinet cabinet in December he formed a cabinet in which be reserved for himself the portfolios of the interior and of religion. The Goblet cabinet was unpopular from the outset, and it was with difficulty that anybody could be found to accept the ministry of foreign affairs, which was finally given to Gustave Flourens.