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> France > President
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| Office | President |
| Honorific | President - Abbr: President |
| Type | General Election |
| Filing Deadline | February 17, 1899 - 12:00pm Central |
| Polls Open | February 18, 1899 - 05:00am Central |
| Polls Close | February 18, 1899 - 06:00am Central |
| Term Start | February 18, 1899 - 12:00pm |
| Term End | January 18, 1906 - 12:00am |
| Contributor | La Fayette |
| Last Modified | La Fayette August 02, 2012 02:17am |
| Data Sources | [Link] |
| Description |
The incumbent french President Felix Faure died before the end of his term, which led to the election of a new President by the Congress.
The french political life was split during this period on the Dreyfus affair. Alfred Dreyfus was a captain of the french army, from jewish descent, and was wrongly accused of high treason, sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to penal colony. As a result, there was a strong division in France between the supporters of Dreyfus, like George Clemenceau, called Dreyfusards, and the opponents of Dreyfus, the "anti-dreyfusard", whose position reflected a hard nationalist line and was supported by antisemite ideologist and antisemite newspapers. The presidential election took place in 1899, that means at the highest point of the controversy.
The candidate of the anti-dreyfusard was Jules Méline, while Clemenceau looked for a candidate who would not be an anti-dreyfusard and not be a member of the radical party. He picked the moderate leader of the Senate, Emile Loubet, who was seen as a consensual man, and had never taken a clear position about the Dreyfus affair. He progressively became the champion of the dreyfusard, while Jules Méline decided not to run against him after all.
Emile Loubet was elected President on the first ballot.
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483 (58.62%)
