While working as a tracher, he was active in his youth within the Christian-democratic movement Le Sillon led by Marc Sangnier.

After returning to France, he participated in the creation of the Northern Federation of the Republican Association of Veterans (ARAC), chaired by Henri Barbusse.

[2] As co-signatory with Arthur Ramette of a letter written on behalf of the French Workers' and Peasants' Group, he requested the Chamber examine peace offers from the USSR.

[2] Imprisoned in several prisons in France, and then transferred with 26 of his colleagues to the Maison-Carrée penitentiary in Algeria, where he was later released after the Allied landings in North Africa in 1943.

In November of the same year, he was appointed by the French Committee of National Liberation as a delegate to the Provisional Consultative Assembly, where he was one of the representatives of the communist group in the Chamber of Deputies.