Assassination of Sadi Carnot
| Assassination of Sadi Carnot | |
|---|---|
| Part of Ère des attentats | |
Representation of the assassination of Sadi Carnot by Sante Caserio, Le Petit Parisien: supplément illustré (8 July 1894) | |
| Location | Lyon, France |
| Date | 24 June 1894 |
| Target | Sadi Carnot |
Attack type | Stabbing |
| Weapon | Dagger |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Injured | 0 |
| Perpetrators | Sante Geronimo Caserio Ernest Saurel (?) Tiburce Straggioti (?) |
| Motive | Anarchism (propaganda by the deed and vengeance for the repressions targetting anarchists) Anticolonialism |
| Accused | 1 |
| Verdict | Guilty |
On 24 June 1894, French President Sadi Carnot was assassinated by Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio in Lyon, France. A part of the Ère des attentats anarchist terrorist campaign (1892–1894), it led to a historic crackdown on French anarchist activities.
Carnot was one of the main supporters of the lois scélérates ('villainous laws'), which aimed to break up anarchist activities during the Ère des attentats—as well as the repression targeting them in early 1894. He became a central target to the movement, especially after refusing to pardon anarchist terrorists Ravachol, Auguste Vaillant, and Émile Henry: the first two having not caused any deaths during their attacks. Vaillant's death in particular sparked a desire for revenge against Carnot, as Vaillant's young daughter Sidonie became orphaned. Caserio, a refugee in France, then likely started working with a small group of anarchists to assassinate him.
Caserio left Sète in late June 1894 and headed for Lyon, trying to deter police from tailing him. He arrived at the first French Colonial Exhibition—as the attack was also an anti-colonial statement—and was positioned precisely to the right of Carnot's procession. As the President mingled with the crowd, Caserio lunged at him, stabbed him, and then tried to flee before being beaten by the crowd and arrested. Carnot died from his injuries that night, and Caserio was brought to trial. He claimed to have acted alone—a position questioned by historians, but accepted by the French judiciary, which sought to bring him to trial as quickly as possible. He was sentenced to death and executed.
Carnot's death was a major shock to the French population, and many people paid tribute to him. His remains were placed in the Panthéon. The assassination provoked significant xenophobic violence directed against Italians in the Rhône region, and resulted in the Chamber of Deputies' adoption of the last, most significant of the lois scélérates: prohibiting all types of anarchist propaganda in France (until its repeal in 1992). The law was the basis for the Trial of the Thirty in August 1894, which aimed to destroy the nation's anarchist movement.