Ollivier, Émile

(1825-1913)

   political figure

   Born in Marseille, Émile Ollivier was an attorney before being elected a deputy to the Legislative Corps (1857) where he joined jules favre and others in forming a republican opposition to the regime of napoléon ш. The increasing liberalization of the regime, however, caused him eventually to support the imperial government of the second empire. A founder of the Third Party (1863), he took a position against the authoritarian policies of eugène rouher and, after the latter's resignation in 1869, Ollivier was charged by Napoléon III to form a new government (January 1870). He was himself named chief of the ministries of justice and of cults. The attempt to establish a parliamentary regime could not, however, save the Empire, despite the favorable plebiscite of May 8, 1870. Also, the Victor Noir affair, a scandal resulting from the murder of journalist Victor Noir by a relative of Napoléon III; the growth of labor unrest; and the deterioration of relations with Prussia all precipitated the government's fall. After the declaration of war with Prussia (July 1870) that he reluctantly voted for, and after the first defeats of the French army by the Prussians (see franco-prussian war), Ollivier immigrated to Italy, where he remained until 1873. He left a number of writings on the Second Empire (Le Ministère du 2 janvier, 1875; L'Empire libéral, 1894-1902). Ollivier was elected to the académie FRANÇAISE in 1870.