Georges Boulanger | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President-Regent of France | |
| In office January 12, 1890 – May 31, 1917 | |
| Preceded by | Marie François Sadi Carnot (as President of the Republic) |
| Succeeded by | Raymond Poincaré (as President of the Republic) |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office January 27, 1889 – January 12, 1890 | |
| President | Marie François Sadi Carnot |
| Preceded by | Charles Floquet |
| Succeeded by | Louis Pasteur |
| Minister of War | |
| In office January 7, 1886 – May 30, 1887 | |
| President | Jules Grévy |
| Preceded by | Jean-Baptiste Campenon |
| Succeeded by | Théophile Ferron |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger April 29, 1837 April 29, 1837 Rennes, Brittany, the  French Empire |
| Died | May 31, 1917 (aged 80) Paris, the  French Republic |
| Political party | Independent (affiliated politically with the Boulangists) |
| Other political affiliations | League of Patriots |
| Spouse(s) | Lucie Renouard (m. 1864; d. 1909) |
| Children | 2 |
| Profession | Politician; Soldier |
Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (April 29, 1837 – May 31, 1917) was a French military man and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the Second Republic era, he won a series of elections and, after staging a coup against the government of Charles Floquet, served as President-Regent of France from 1889 to his death in 1917. Boulanger ruled France based on the "Napoleonic idea" where all executive power was entrusted to Boulanger as the head of state who solely responsible to the people while kept the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives be elected on popular basis where the universal male suffrage was even introduced in 1891.
Boulanger promoted his own political ideology called Boulangism, an ideology of the far right supporting mass action of the people in several key issues, that included the aspects such the revenge against the German Empire, the cooptation between a strong executive Presidency with a democratically-elected parliament within the French constitutional structure, and the unity between all French political factions, either that from the Left or the Right, under the leadership of Boulanger as president of France.
Even after his death, Boulanger's political legacy and ideology, albeit controversial, shaped the French constitutional structure into its current form that established a semi-presidential system where President of France, despite is later elected democratically, wields significant influence and authority on the country beside the National Assembly. Boulangism later also influenced the creation of ideology of Fascism in Europe where the 1922 March on Rome in Italy by Benito Mussolini and his Fascist supporters as well as France's very own February 6, 1934 coup by François de La Rocque and the Croix de Feu paramilitaries were believed to be inspired by Boulangist coup in 1889.