Editing Vincent Auriol (section)

==Early life and politics==
Auriol was born in [[Revel, Haute-Garonne]], as the only child of Jacques Antoine Auriol (1855–1933), a baker nicknamed Paul, and Angélique Virginie Durand (1861–1945).<ref name="lauragais-patrimoine">See Auriol's extensive biography by Jacques Batigne on [http://www.lauragais-patrimoine.fr/HISTOIRE/VINCENT%20AURIOL/VOYAGE-AURIOL.html lauragais-patrimoine.fr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404050458/http://www.lauragais-patrimoine.fr/HISTOIRE/VINCENT%20AURIOL/VOYAGE-AURIOL.html |date=4 April 2009 }} {{in lang|fr}}</ref> His great-grandmother, Anne Auriol, was a first cousin of English engineer [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]. He earned a law degree at the Collège de Revel in 1904 and began his career as a [[lawyer]] in [[Toulouse]]. A committed [[Socialism|socialist]], Auriol co-founded the newspaper ''Le Midi Socialiste'' in 1908; he was head of the Association of Journalists in Toulouse at this time.

In 1914, Auriol entered the [[Chamber of Deputies]] as a Socialist Deputy for [[Muret]], a position he retained until 1942.<ref name="deputy">See the list of his mandates as a deputy on [http://www.assembleenationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=285 assembleenationale.fr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200531/http://www.assembleenationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=285 |date=3 March 2016 }} {{in lang|fr}}</ref> He also served as Mayor of Muret from 3 May 1925 to 17 January 1947,<ref name="lauragais-patrimoine"/> and as a member of the [[Conseil Général]] of [[Haute-Garonne]] from 1928 to 17 January 1947. In December 1920, after the [[Tours Congress|breakup]] of the [[French Section of the Workers' International|SFIO]], Auriol refused to join the newly created [[French Communist Party|SFIC]] and became one of the leaders of the new SFIO (the remaining socialist minority), along with [[Léon Blum]].

[[File:Vincent Auriol-1927.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Auriol in 1927.]]
Auriol became the party's leading spokesman on financial issues. He chaired the Finance Committee in the Chamber of Deputies from 1924 to 1926. His first cabinet post was as [[List of Finance Ministers of France|Minister of Finance]] under [[Léon Blum]], in which Auriol controversially devalued the [[French franc]] 30% against the [[United States dollar]], leading to [[capital flight]] and greater economic unease. This and Blum's proposals for greater regulatory restrictions on industry led to Blum's resignation as [[Prime Minister of France|Premier]]; in the next government, led by [[Camille Chautemps]], Auriol was made [[Minister of Justice (France)|Minister of Justice]], then later he was appointed as Minister of Coordination of Services of the Presidency of the Council in Blum's short-lived government in 1938. [[Édouard Daladier]]'s [[Conservatism|conservative]]–[[Radical Party (France)|Radical]] government formed on 10 April 1938 returned Auriol to the Chamber of Deputies.

Auriol was one of the [[The Vichy 80|80 deputies who voted against]] the extraordinary powers given to Prime Minister [[Philippe Pétain]] on 10 July 1940 that brought about the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]]-backed [[Vichy France|Vichy government]]. As a result, he was placed under [[house arrest]] until he escaped to the [[French Resistance]] in October 1942, and fought with the resistance for a year. Auriol fled to [[London]] in October 1943. He represented the Socialists at the [[Free French]] Consultative Assembly (organized by [[Charles de Gaulle]] in [[Algiers]] later that year). In July 1944, he represented France at the [[United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference]] at [[Bretton Woods, New Hampshire|Bretton Woods]], United States.