Grévy, Jules

Grévy, Jules zhül grāvēˈ [key], 1807–91, French statesman, president of France (1879–87). As a republican deputy after the February Revolution (1848), he sought to eliminate the danger of a single strong executive. He opposed the Second Empire of Napoleon III. Grévy, a provincial lawyer, abstained from politics from 1851 until he became a deputy in 1868. President of the national assembly (1871–73) and of the chamber of deputies (1876–77), he was chosen to succeed Marshal MacMahon as president of France. His moderate republicanism secured his reelection, but in 1887 he was forced to resign because of a scandal over his son-in-law's traffic in decorations of honor. Sadi Carnot succeeded him.

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