Avenue Roger Salengro

Roger Salengro is a French politician. He quickly became involved in politics, becoming an activist for the SFIO, the French Section of the International Workers' Movement, the forerunner of the French Socialist Party. During the First World War, he came out of his trench to try to recover the body of a friend killed in action. He was captured by the Germans while the French troops thought he had been shot. The authorities suspected him of having deserted, but the emaciated former prisoner of war was tried and acquitted. After three years of captivity, Roger Salengro resumed his militant activities, and in 1925 he was elected mayor of Lille, and then to the seat of deputy three years later. Re-elected several times, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in the government formed by Léon Blum in 1936. At the origin of the dissolution of the extreme right-wing leagues, he was targeted by the fascist media. They led a violent campaign of allegations against the minister, claiming that he had deserted during the war. Weakened by the death of his wife and the illness of his mother, he committed suicide by gas asphyxiation on November 17, 1936, after being insulted in his city. A month later, the legislature increased the penalties for defamation.