Marcel Déat was born March 7, 1894 at Guérigny France, graduated from the École Normale with high marks and taught philosophy in Reims. Elected as a Socialist to the Chamber of Deputies in 1926, he broke ranks in 1932 in opposition to the leadership of León Blum. He then drifted to the political right and helped form the Parti Socialiste de France (July 1933) to counter Blum's Socialist policies. Although he held the portfolio of air minister (1936) he lost his seat in the Chamber that year. Opposed to declaring war on Germany in 1939, Déat eagerly collaborated with the Germans in Paris and formed the collaborationist Rassemblement National Populaire in 1940. He joined the Laval government in 1944 as minister of work and social affairs. Déat disappeared in 1945 and was condemned to death, in absentia, for treason, but he fled to a convent in Turin, Italy remaining there until his death on January 5, 1955.
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