Boulanger - Georges Ernest Boulanger

French soldier and politician. He was the protagonist of the anti-parliamentary political movement "Boulanger Affair" under the Third Republic. After graduating from the military academy, he served in the Algerian and Indochina campaigns, and became famous in the Prussian-French War, becoming a general at a young age in 1880. In 1886, he was recommended by Clemenceau to become Minister of War in the Freixenet cabinet. He promoted republican reforms such as excluding members of the royal family from the military and democratizing the military system, and during the Decazeville coal strike, he sympathized with the miners and called on the military to avoid conflict, earning him popularity among the masses. In the Schneble Affair (April 1887), which caused tensions on the German-French border, he took a hard-line stance against Germany, and was welcomed by the people who were burning with a desire for revenge after the defeat in the Prussian-French War, and was hailed as the "revenge general." When he was replaced as Minister of War in May 1887, he was promoted by various factions dissatisfied with the republic as a symbol of the anti-establishment movement, and with the slogan "Dissolution of Parliament, Revision of the Constitution, Constituent Assembly", he won a landslide victory in the by-elections in Paris on January 27, 1889. The capital city was on the eve of a coup d'état, but after the government launched a counterattack and was prosecuted, he fled to Belgium and committed suicide in September 1891 at the grave of his mistress.

[Minoru Tanikawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスの軍人、政治家。第三共和政下の反議会主義的政治運動「ブーランジェ事件」の主人公。陸軍士官学校を出てアルジェリア、インドシナ遠征に従軍後、プロイセン・フランス戦争に勇名をはせ、1880年若くして将軍となる。1886年にクレマンソーに推されてフレシネ内閣の陸相に就任。軍隊からの王族の排除、兵制の民主化など共和主義的改革を推進し、ドゥカズビル炭鉱ストに際しても、坑夫に同情して軍隊に衝突を回避するよう呼びかけて大衆の人気を集めた。独仏国境間の緊張をもたらしたシュネブレ事件（1887年4月）では、対ドイツ強硬姿勢をとったため、プロイセン・フランス戦争の敗北以後報復熱に燃えていた国民に迎えられ、「復讐(ふくしゅう)将軍」ともてはやされた。1887年5月彼が陸相を更迭されると、共和政に不満をもつ諸派から反体制運動の象徴として担ぎ出され、「議会解散、憲法改正、制憲議会」をスローガンに1889年1月27日のパリの補欠選挙に圧勝。首都はクーデター前夜の観を呈するに至るが、反撃に転じた政府の訴追を受けベルギーに亡命、1891年9月愛人の墓前で自害した。

［谷川　稔］

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