Michel Rocard

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Michel Rocard

Prime Minister of France
In office 10 May 1988 – 15 May 1991
Preceded by	Jacques Chirac
Succeeded by	Édith Cresson

Born	23 August 1930 Courbevoie
Political party	Socialist

Michel Rocard (born 23 August 1930) is a French Socialist politician, former Prime Minister, and currently a member of the European Parliament.

[edit] Career

He was born at Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine) in a Protestant family, son of the nuclear physicist Yves Rocard, and entered politics as a student leader whilst studying at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He became Chair of the French Socialist Students (linked to the SFIO socialist party), and studied at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. A finance inspector (senior official) and anti-colonialist, he went to Algeria and wrote a report regarding the widely ignored refugee camps of the Algerian War of Independence. This report was leaked to the newspapers Le Monde and France Observateur in April 1959, almost costing Rocard his job.

Having left the SFIO because of its approval of the Algerian war, he led the dissident Unified Socialist Party (PSU) from 1967 to 1974. Elected to the French National Assembly in 1969, he ran in the 1969 presidential elections. In 1974, after his run for re-election as a depty the previous year, he joined François Mitterrand and the new Parti Socialiste (which had replaced the old SFIO in 1971). Most of the PSU members and a part of the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail trade union - generally known in France as the non-Marxist, "Second Left" - followed him.

Elected mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 1977, and a deputy for the Yvelines département in the National Assembly (1978), he led the opposition to Mitterrand inside the Socialist Party (as a candidate of the modernising wing of the party), but was unsuccessful in seeking the Socialist nomination for 1981 presidency.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Michel Rocard's group inside the Socialist Party, known as "les rocardiens", advocated the modernisation of French socialism through a clearer acceptance of the market economy, more decentralisation and less state control. It was largely influenced by Scandinavian Social Democracy, and stood in opposition to Mitterrand's initial agenda of nationalization, which was still based on a broadly Marxist ideology. Nonetheless, the "rocardiens" always remained a minority.

Under Mitterrand's first presidency, he was Minister of Territorial Development and Minister of Planning from 1981 to 1983 and Minister of Agriculture from 1983 to 1985. After Mitterrand's re-election, he was Prime Minister (1988-1991) and led the Matignon Accords regarding the status of New Caledonia, which ended the troubles in this overseas territory. His record in office also include a decrease in unemployment and a large-scale reform of the welfare state's financing system. Michel Rocard's poor relations with François Mitterrand, notably during his mandate as Prime Minister, became notorious.

After the 1993 electoral disaster, he became head of Socialist Party, but had to resign one year later, after his own defeat: the Socialist Party had its worst electoral result in the 1994 European Parliament election. The defeat was in part due to the success of the list of the Radicals of the Left, which was covertly supported by President Mitterrand.

Michel Rocard then lost his last chance to run for president in 1995. Elected Senator of Yvelines in 1995, he resigned two years later. His supporters within the Socialist Party became allies of candidate Lionel Jospin, who was Prime Minister in 1995-2002, and then Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is his favourite potential candidate for the 2007 presidential elections.

Since 1999, he has been a member of the European Parliament, and was chairman of Foreign affairs, human rights and defense commission from 1999 to 2004. Michel Rocard is known for his hostility for the proposed directives to allow software patents in Europe, and has been an outspoken opponent of what he considers to be sneaky manoeuvres to force the decision on this issue. He has thus played an instrumental role in causing the rejection of the recent directive seeking to enforce software patents on 6 July 2005.

[edit] Rocard's Ministry, 12 May 1988–15 May 1991

Michel Rocard - Prime Minister
Roland Dumas - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Edith Cresson - Minister of European Affairs
Jean-Pierre Chevènement - Minister of Defense
Pierre Joxe - Minister of the Interior
Pierre Bérégovoy - Minister of Economy, Finance, Budget, and Privatization
Roger Fauroux - Minister of Industry
Michel Delebarre - Minister of Employment and Social Affairs
Pierre Arpaillange - Minister of Justice
Lionel Jospin - Minister of National Education, Sport, Research, and Technology
Jack Lang - Minister of Culture and Communication
Henri Nallet - Minister of Agriculture and Forests
Maurice Faure - Minister of Housing and Equipment
Louis Mermaz - Minister of Transport
Jean Poperen - Minister of Relations with Parliament
Jacques Pelletier - Minister of Cooperation and Development
Paul Quilès - Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Space
Michel Durafour - Minister of Civil Service
Roger Fauroux - Minister of External Commerce
Louis Le Pensec - Minister of Sea

Changes

22-23 June 1988 - Michel Delebarre succeeds Mermaz as Minister of Transport and Le Pensec as Minister of Sea. The office of Minister of Social Affairs is abolished, but Claude Evin enters the ministry as Minister of Solidarity, Health, and Social Protection. Jean-Pierre Soisson succeeds Delebarre as Minister of Employment, becoming also Minister of Labour and Vocational Training. Louis Le Pensec becomes Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories. Jean-Marie-Rausch succeeds Fauroux as Minister of External Commerce. Hubert Curien succeeds Jospin as Minister of Research and Technology. Jospin remains Minister of National Education and Sport. Michel Durafour becomes Minister of Administrative Reforms as well as Minister of Civil Service.
28 June 1988 - Jack Lang becomes Minister of Great Works and Bicentenary in addition to being Minister of Culture and Communication.
22 February 1989 - Michel Delebarre succeeds Faure as Minister of Housing and Equipment, remaining also Minister of Transport.
2 October 1990 - The office of Minister of European Affairs is abolished. Henri Nallet succeeds Arpaillange as Minister of Justice. Louis Mermaz succeeds Nallet as Minister of Agriculture and Forests. The office of Minister of Bicentenary is abolished. Jack Lang remains minister of Culture, Communication and Great Works.
21 December 1990 - Michel Delebarre becomes Minister of City. Louis Besson succeeds Delebarre as Minister of Transport, Housing, Sea, and Equipment.
29 January 1991 - Pierre Joxe succeeds Chevènement as Minister of Defense. Philippe Marchand succeeds Joxe as Minister of the Interior.

[edit] External links

Preceded by —	Minister of Planning 1981–1983	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Fernand Icart	Minister of Territorial Development 1981–1983	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Edith Cresson	Minister of Agriculture 1983–1985	Succeeded by Henri Nallet
Preceded by Jacques Chirac	Prime Minister of France 1988–1991	Succeeded by Edith Cresson
Preceded by Laurent Fabius	First Secretary of the Socialist Party 1993–1994	Succeeded by Henri Emmanuelli

Prime Ministers of the French Fifth Republic
Michel Debré • Georges Pompidou • Maurice Couve de Murville • Jacques Chaban-Delmas • Pierre Messmer • Jacques Chirac • Raymond Barre • Pierre Mauroy • Laurent Fabius • Jacques Chirac • Michel Rocard • Édith Cresson • Pierre Bérégovoy • Édouard Balladur • Alain Juppé • Lionel Jospin • Jean-Pierre Raffarin • Dominique de Villepin