Agénor Bardoux

Agénor Bardoux (15 January 1829, Bourges, Cher – 23 November 1897, Paris) was a French statesman and republican.

[1] Bardoux was established as an advocate in Clermont-Ferrand, and did not hesitate to proclaim his Republican sympathies.

In 1871 he was elected deputy of the French National Assembly, and re-elected in 1876 and in 1877.

In the chamber he was president of the Centre gauche group, standing strongly for the republic but against anti-clericalism, and during the constitutional crisis of May 1877 he was one of the 363 signatories to the vote of no confidence.

[2] In the subsequently elected republican chamber he became minister of public instruction (December 1877) and proposed various republican laws, notably on compulsory primary education.