Omnisport/ Léo Lagrange/ Minister/ Front populaire/FSGT/ Bou - Lot 346

Omnisport/ Léo Lagrange/ Minister/ Front populaire/FSGT/ Bourg-sur-Gironde/Avesnes-sur-Helpe/ Evergnicourt. Large gilded bronze medal signed Fraisse-Demey (diam: 22.5, single issue (?), model (?)) to pay tribute to the most popular Minister of Sports, precisely that of the Popular Front of 1936, and the first paid vacations. In fact, Léo Lagrange (1900-1940) was only Under-Secretary of State, but the impact of the Front Populaire, his fight for Youth Hostels and the Barcelona Workers' Games, brought him closer to the sun. And this sober medal bears witness to that influence. He had been a member of the Eclaireurs (Pathfinders), had enlisted in the First World War, had been a militant member of the SFIO, and had been elected deputy for Avesnes-sur-Helpe in 1932. His charisma and commitment had earned him the friendship of Malraux, Jean Prévost, Blum, Chautemps and Mendes... He was to fall in battle at Evergnicourt, arms in hand, in 1940. He was not yet 40. The memory of this strong-willed idealist will never fade, and we think more than ever of one of his phrases: "It's better to have 100 stadiums with 1,000 seats, than one with 100,000...".