Mollet, Guy Alcide (1905–1975)

French socialist politician, post-war leader of the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO) 1946–69, and prime minister 1956–57. He launched the Anglo-French Suez expedition with British prime minister Anthony Eden, and in Algeria succumbed to settler pressures to remove the liberal governor general Georges Catroux.

Mollet became prominent in political affairs after the liberation of France at the end of World War II. A supporter of the Atlantic Alliance and European integration, the class-struggle rhetoric Mollet deployed in party and electoral arenas contrasted with his opportunist policies in government. He retained the party leadership through his control of the party's large departmental federation of Pas-de-Calais, where he served as mayor of Arras and then deputy 1945–75. Mollet supported General de Gaulle's return to government in 1958, serving as a minister of state in his transitional government 1958–59.