Félix Gaillard

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Félix Gaillard
Félix Gaillard

In office
November 6, 1957 – May 13, 1958
Preceded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury
Succeeded by Pierre Pflimlin

Born November 5, 1919
Died July 10, 1970
Political party Radical

Félix Gaillard d'Aimé (5 November 1919, Paris - 10 July 1970) was a French Radical politician who served as Prime Minister under the Fourth Republic from 1957 to 1958. He was the youngest head of a French government since Napoleon.[1]

[edit] Career

Senior civil servant in the Inland Revenue Service, he joined the Resistance and served on its Finance committee. Member of the Radical Party, he was elected deputy of Charente département in 1946. During the Fourth Republic, he held some governmental offices, notably as Minister of Economy and Finance in 1957, before to become Prime Minister. He was defeated by the French National Assembly, in March 1958, after the bombing of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef, a Tunisian village.

President of the Radical Party from 1958 to 1961, he advocated an alliance of the center-left and the center-right parties. He is representative of a generation of young politicians which the political rise was stopped by the advent of the Fifth Republic. His end was tragic: in July 1970 he perished in a yachting accident.

[edit] Gaillard's Ministry, 6 November 1957 - 14 May 1958

  • Félix Gaillard - President of the Council
  • Christian Pineau - Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Jacques Chaban-Delmas - Minister of National Defense and Armed Forces
  • Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury - Minister of the Interior
  • Pierre Pflimlin - Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Planning
  • Paul Ribeyre - Minister of Commerce and Industry
  • Paul Bacon - Minister of Labour and Social Security
  • Robert Lecourt - Minister of Justice
  • René Billères - Minister of National Education, Youth, and Sports
  • Antoine Quinson - Minister of Veterans and War Victims
  • Roland Boscary-Monsservin - Minister of Agriculture
  • Gérard Jaquet - Minister of Overseas France
  • Édouard Bonnefous - Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism
  • Félix Houphouët-Boigny - Minister of Public Health and Population
  • Pierre Garet - Minister of Reconstruction and Housing
  • Max Lejeune - Minister for the Sahara
Preceded by
Paul Ramadier
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs
1957
Succeeded by
Pierre Pflimlin
Preceded by
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury
Prime Minister of France
1957–1958
Succeeded by
Pierre Pflimlin
Preceded by
Édouard Daladier
President of the Radical Party
1958–1961
Succeeded by
Maurice Faure
  1. ^ Biography in French on the Assemblée Nationale Web Site