De him, we remember the famous fall of the presidential train in the spring of 1920: on the way to Montbrison to inaugurate a monument, Paul Deschanel accidentally fell on the track in the middle of the night, while the train was traveling at low speed to cross an area of work… Found wandering in pajamas by a gatekeeper, the new President of the Republic quickly became the target of singers and satirical newspapers, like Le Canard enchaîné which wrote a lament for the occasion: “He’s crazy / It’s not is not funny / He has a sperm whale / Nestled in the chiboulot. “And the more classic press to wonder if the president is in a mental state to fulfill his functions… In fact, four months later, Deschanel resigns.
But history did not retain only the fall of the train. This poor Deschanel has been described as the real dingo of the Élysée, a man who signed the Napoleon or Vercingetorix decrees, who fished for carp in the Rambouillet basin, climbed the trees in the park or walked around once naked as a worm with, as only costume, the grand cordon of the Legion of Honor… Nothing could be more false, explains Thierry Billard in a large biography devoted to this misunderstood president and published by Perrin in an augmented version. “Can we really think that the parliamentarians could have sent a madman to the Elysée?, he wonders. Deschanel was a brilliant man, a remarkable orator, former President of the Chamber, opposed to the death penalty, in favor of women’s suffrage, proportional representation, the development of mutualism, a form of social protection before its time… But he didn’t wasn’t made for political politics. His problems at the Élysée have only accentuated his disgrace in the eyes of history: he remains forever the one who beat Clemenceau, celebrated as the hero of 14-18. »
According to him, all these fanciful anecdotes were written afterwards, at the end of the 1930s, by Paul Allard, in Secrets of the Elysée, and taken up since in a number of works devoted to the history of the palace of the presidents. Allard does not go with a dead hand by describing a crazy president who splashed around in the Rambouillet basins “believing himself a pike”, or even supported by his wife, who “took his hand and guided it” to sign decrees and avoid discomfiture – “because he had to keep signing”.
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Burnout at the Élysée
Napoleon’s signature? Historians have found no trace of these decrees, and his wife, contrary to rumours, would not have imitated his signature either to save appearances… Research carried out at the National Archives even proves that Deschanel used during his entire mandate in the same handwriting, without alteration. The reception of an ambassador where he appears in the simplest device? Impossible, a minister was always with the head of state for this kind of very codified meeting. The episode of “bathing” in the Rambouillet basin? This time, there is indeed the beginning of the truth: on September 10, 1920, at 6 a.m., an employee raised the alarm when he saw him enter up to his calves in cold water, but without intending to to fish. We immediately bring him back to the castle, where he says he does not remember anything… In reality, the president is in full burn-out: depressed, exhausted, nerves in compote, the stress of the function ended up completely undermining him.
In his book, Thierry Billard recounts in detail how the brilliant career of politics got bogged down in the Elysian trap. Elected after the First World War, in the face of Clemenceau who had nevertheless led the country to victory, Paul Deschanel immediately felt invested with a major mission: he intended to restore luster and power to the function, modernize the institutions, intervene in foreign policy, position himself as a political arbiter… Waking up at 6:30 a.m., he consults the files, goes through meetings, monitors the fittings of the palace, chairs receptions and still consults his collaborators until 10 p.m.… But he quickly become disillusioned with Alexandre Millerand, head of government, who does not intend to leave him any room for manoeuvre.
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Here he is like the others, a potiche president, “a constitutional penguin”, according to the famous formula of Raymond Poincaré. Depressed, stressed, this emotional man gradually multiplies the obvious signs of nervous fatigue. The most serious of them is undoubtedly the episode of the fall of the train: the president had taken for the first time a hypnotic to be able to sleep, which very certainly disturbed his senses and his reactions. He wakes up in the middle of the night, his mind clouded, rolls down the window of his wagon to get some air – it is very low to be able to greet the crowd – and falls onto the track. According to the thesis reported by Thierry Billard, Paul Deschanel was a victim of Elpénor syndrome, a condition characterized by “incomplete awakening with temporary memory problems”, which can lead to temporary incidents that are often incomprehensible – the victim can thus take a window for a door. “It is sometimes at home, but almost always away from home that the subject presents with incomplete awakening”, explained Dr. Logre in an article in the World dated 1948, which added that the syndrome could be caused by medication, fatigue or depression. Nothing to do, therefore, with a characterized madness.
After his resignation, Paul Deschanel rests three months in a sanatorium. “I’m ridiculous”, he repeats over and over again, aware of having given food for thought to singers for decades… He nevertheless returned to politics, being elected senator in the first round in 1921. He believed he was holding his revenge, prepares a speech described as “explosive”, where he intends in particular to criticize the omnipotence of the head of government vis-a-vis the presidency of the Republic. He won’t have time: death suddenly takes him away in the spring of 1922. Cursed to the end.
To read : Paul Deschanelby Thierry Billard, Perrin edition.