Edgar Faure

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Edgar Faure

Edgar Faure (August 18, 1908 - March 30, 1988) was a French politician, essayist, historian, and memoirist.

1 Career
2 Works
3 Faure's First Ministry, 20 January - 8 March 1952
4 Faure's Second Ministry, 23 February 1955 - 1 February 1956

[edit] Career

Faure was born in Béziers, Languedoc-Roussillon. He trained as a lawyer in Paris and became a member of the Bar at 27, the youngest lawyer in France to do so at the time. While living in Paris, he became active in Third Republic politics, and joined the Radical Party.

During the German occupation of World War II, he joined the French Resistance in the Maquis, and in 1942 fled to Charles de Gaulle's headquarters in Algiers, where he was made head of the Provisional Government of the Republic's legislative department. At the end of the war he served as French counsel for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials.

In 1946, he was elected to the French Parliament as a Radical. While the popularity of his party declined to less than 10 per cent of the total vote, none of the other parties were able to gain a clear majority. As such, early on, Faure’s party often played a disproportionately important role in the formation of French governments. In this, he led the cabinet in 1952 and from 1955 to 1956. Faure was a leader of the more conservative wing of the party, opposing the party's left under Pierre Mendès-France.

Faure's views changed during the Fourth Republic, and after to be opposed to the Fifth Republic (he voted against the presidential election by universal suffrage in the 1962 referendum), he became finally Gaullist. De Gaulle's party Union for the New Republic sent him on an unofficial mission to the People's Republic of China in 1963. In government he served in successive ministries: Agriculture (1966-1968), National Education (1968-1969, presenting the project of reform of universities), Social Affairs (1972-1973). He declined to be a candidate at the 1974 presidential election, and supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing against the Gaullist candidate Jacques Chaban-Delmas.

He had the reputation of a careerist and the nickname of "weathercock". He replied with humour: "it is not the weathercock which turns, it is the wind!".

He was a member of the National Assembly for the Jura départment from 1946 to 1958, and for the Doubs départment from 1967 to 1980. He presided over the French National Assembly from 1973 to 1978. He was a Senator from 1959 to 1967 for the Jura, and again in 1980 for the Doubs. In 1978 he became a Member of the Académie française.

On the regional, departemental and local levels, Edgar Faure was mayor of Port-Lesney (Jura) from 1947 to 1971, and from 1983 to 1988, and mayor of Pontarlier between 1971 and 1977; he served as president of the General Council of the Jura départment from 1949 to 1967, then member of the General Council of the Doubs from 1967 to 1979, president of the council of the Franche-Comté région (1974-1981, 1982-1988).

Edgar Faure was interred in Cimetière de Passy, Paris.

During his career, Edgar Faure served as:

Minister of Finance (1950-51);
Prime Minister - (1952);
Foreign Minister - (1955);
Prime Minister - (1955-56) one of the big four of the Geneva Conference with Eisenhower, Bulganin and Eden;
Minister of Agriculture - (1966);
Minister of Education - (1968);
Minister of Social Affairs - (1969);
President of the National Assembly (1973-79).

[edit] Works

He published the following books:

Le serpent et la tortue (les problèmes de la Chine populaire), Juillard, 1957
La disgrâce de Turgot, Gallimard, 1961
La capitation de Dioclétien, Sirey 1961
Prévoir le présent, Gallimard, 1966
L'éducation nationale et la participation, Plon, 1968
Philosophie d'une réforme, Plon, 1969
L'âme du combat, Fayard, 1969
Ce que je crois, Grasset, 1971
Pour un nouveau contrat social, Seuil, 1973
Au-delà du dialogue avec Philippe Sollers, Balland, 1977
La banqueroute de Law, Gallimard, 1977
La philosophie de Karl Popper et la société politique d'ouverture, Firmin Didot, 1981
Pascal: le procès des provinciales, Firmin Didot, 1930
Le pétrole dans la paix et dans la guerre, Nouvelle revue critique 1938
Mémoires I, "Avoir toujours raison, c'est un grand tort", Plon, 1982
Mémoires II, "Si tel doit être mon destin ce soir", Plon, 1984
Discours prononcé pour la réception de Senghor à l'Académie française, le 29 mars 1984

[edit] Faure's First Ministry, 20 January - 8 March 1952

Edgar Faure - President of the Council and Minister of Finance
Georges Bidault - Vice President of the Council and Minister of National Defense
Henri Queuille - Vice President of the Council
Robert Schuman - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Pierre Pflimlin - Minister for the Council of Europe
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury - Minister of Armaments
Charles Brune - Minister of the Interior
Robert Buron - Minister of Economic Affairs and Information
Pierre Courant - Minister of Budget
Jean-Marie Louvel - Minister of Industry and Energy
Paul Bacon - Minister of Labour and Social Security
Léon Martinaud-Deplat - Minister of Justice
André Morice - Minister of Merchant Marine
Pierre-Olivier Lapie - Minister of National Education
Emmanuel Temple - Minister of Veterans and War Victims
Camille Laurens - Minister of Agriculture
Louis Jacquinot - Minister of Overseas France
Antoine Pinay - Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism
Paul Ribeyre - Minister of Public Health and Population
Eugène Claudius-Petit - Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning
Roger Duchet - Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
Édouard Bonnefous - Minister of Commerce
Jean Letourneau - Minister of Partner States
Joseph Laniel - Minister of State
François Mitterrand - Minister of State

[edit] Faure's Second Ministry, 23 February 1955 - 1 February 1956

Edgar Faure - President of the Council
Antoine Pinay - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Pierre Koenig - Minister of National Defense and Armed Forces
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury - Minister of the Interior
Pierre Pflimlin - Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs
André Morice - Minister of Commerce and Industry
Paul Bacon - Minister of Labour and Social Security
Robert Schuman - Minister of Justice
Paul Antier - Minister of Merchant Marine
Jean Berthoin - Minister of National Education
Raymond Triboulet - Minister of Veterans and War Victims
Jean Sourbet - Minister of Agriculture
Pierre-Henri Teitgen - Minister of Overseas France
Édouard Corniglion-Molinier - Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism
Bernard Lafay - Minister of Public Health and Population
Roger Duchet - Minister of Reconstruction and Housing
Édouard Bonnefous - Minister of Posts
Pierre July - Minister of Moroccan and Tunisian Affairs

Changes

6 October 1955 - Pierre Billotte succeeds Koenig as Minister of National Defense and Armed Forces. Vincent Badie succeeds Triboulet as Minister of Veterans and War Victims.
20 October 1955 - Pierre July leaves the Cabinet and the office of Minister of Moroccan and Tunisian Affairs is abolished.
1 December 1955 - Edgar Faure succeeds Bourgès-Maunoury as interim Minister of the Interior.

Preceded by Charles Spinasse	Minister of Budget 1950–1951	Succeeded by Pierre Courant
Preceded by René Mayer	Minister of Justice 1951–1952	Succeeded by Léon Martinaud-Deplat
Preceded by René Pleven	Prime Minister of France 1952	Succeeded by Antoine Pinay
Preceded by René Mayer	Minister of Finance 1952	Succeeded by Antoine Pinay
Preceded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury	Minister of Finance 1953–1955	Succeeded by Robert Buron
Preceded by —	Minister of Planning 1954–1955	Succeeded by Robert Buron
Preceded by Pierre Mendès-France	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1955	Succeeded by Antoine Pinay
Preceded by Pierre Mendès-France	Prime Minister of France 1955–1956	Succeeded by Guy Mollet
Preceded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury	interim Minister of the Interior 1955–1956	Succeeded by Jean Gilbert-Jules
Preceded by Pierre Pflimlin	Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Planning 1958	Succeeded by Antoine Pinay
Preceded by Edgard Pisani	Minister of Agriculture 1966–1968	Succeeded by Robert Boulin
Preceded by François-Xavier Ortoli	Minister of National Education 1968–1969	Succeeded by Olivier Guichard
Preceded by —	Minister of Social Affairs 1972–1973	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Achille Peretti	President of the National Assembly 1973–1978	Succeeded by Jacques Chaban-Delmas