Joining the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), the French socialist party, he was one of the editors of the Cri populaire de l'Oise, newspaper of the SFIO in the Oise département. He was elected mayor of Creil in 1935 and entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1936 following a by-election in the Oise département. He was re-elected at the general election which followed later in the year, bringing Léon Blum's Popular Front government to power. In 1937 he was appointed to the editorial committee of the SFIO's official journal Le Populaire.