Pierre Bérégovoy
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| Pierre Bérégovoy | |
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| In office April 2, 1992 – March 29, 1993 |
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| President | François Mitterrand |
| Preceded by | Édith Cresson |
| Succeeded by | Édouard Balladur |
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| Born | 23 December 1925 Déville-lès-Rouen |
| Died | 1 May 1993 (aged 67) Paris |
| Political party | Socialist |
| Occupation | Metallurgist Civil Servant |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Pierre Eugène Bérégovoy (23 December 1925 – 1 May 1993) was a French Socialist politician of Ukrainian origin. He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1992 to 1993.
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[edit] Early career
Pierre Bérégovoy was born in Déville-lès-Rouen, Haute-Normandie to a Ukrainian immigrant family (original family name Береговой) who had left the Russian Empire after the Russian Civil War.
He started his professional life at the age of 16 as a qualified metal worker. He got involved in politics following his activities in the French Resistance - while working at SNCF during World War II. Member of the trade unions confederation Workers Force, he left the Socialist party SFIO in 1959 and participated to the foundation of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). He became an adviser of Pierre Mendès-France. In 1967, with Alain Savary, a create the pro-Mendès-France Union of clubs for the renewal of the left. This group joined the Socialist Party (PS) in 1969. He joined the executive group of the party behind François Mitterrand.
In 1981, when Mitterrand was elected President of France, he was chosen as secretary general of the presidency. One year later, he joined the cabinet as Minister of Social affairs. He was among the Socialist politicians who advised President Mitterrand to leave the European Monetary System in order to continue Socialist economic policy. But in March 1983, Mitterrand listened to his Prime minister Pierre Mauroy and ratified the change of economic policy. Bérégovoy came round it, and so could become Minister of Economy and Finance, from 1984 to the 1986 Socialist electoral defeat.
Elected mayor of Nevers in 1983, and deputy of Nièvre département in 1986, in the electoral land of Mitterrand, he led his 1988 presidential campaign. After his re-election, at the time of each cabinet reshuffle, his name was mentioned as a possible Prime Minister. In the end, he returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In this function, he symbolized the adaptation of French socialism to the market economy and struck up hearty relations with employers representatives.
After the 1992 regional elections, which were a disaster for the Socialist Party, he was appointed Prime Minister at last. He promised to fight unemployment, economic decline and corruption. During his inaugural speech in the French National Assembly, he claimed he knew the names of politicians from the right-wing opposition implicated in corruption scandals, causing a great hue and cry. Bérégovoy forced Bernard Tapie, his Minister of City, to resign in May 1992 after his indictment by the French justice. He thus created the misnamed "Balladur jurisprudence".[1]
He resigned after the Socialist electoral collapse of the 1993 legislative election.
[edit] Death
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Pierre Bérégovoy died on 1 May 1993, in Paris after being transported by helicopter from Nevers (Nièvre), where he had been found an hour earlier, in a coma with two bullets in the head. The second bullet was attributed to a nervous reflex. Police investigators ruled his death as a suicide, confirming his bodyguard's deposition, who claimed the former prime minister was with him when he grabbed the guard's gun, while according to the first version of events which appeared in the press relating that Bérégovoy had returned alone to the car and had taken the gun from the glove box. The press also reported that "witnesses heard two shots...." before finding the corpse. The only photo released to the press showed Bérégovoy with a small calibre hole whereas a shot at close range with the bodyguard's 357 magnum would have blown half his head away. There was no investigation after the event which means there was no comparison between the arm allegedly used and the munitions which caused the death.
Most of Bérégovoy's close friends admitted that he had been depressed ever since he lost the March legislative elections in which his Socialist Party won only 67 out of 577 parliamentary seats. Bérégovoy was also being investigated over a 1 million Franc interest-free loan by businessman and close friend Roger Patrice-Pelat who had died of a heart attack on 7th March 1989, less than one month after being found guilty in the Péchiney-Triangle affair. Bérégovoy's suicide came on the eve of the opening of a new trial concerning the acquisition of Triangle by Péchiney. His wife expressed some doubt, mainly because he had not left a suicide note and that his note pad, which he kept continually in his pocket, had disappeared. Some have suggested that Bérégovoy might actually have been assassinated, suggesting that similarities exist between his death and that of other figures close to Mitterrand including: René Lucet, the head of the Social Security public health system, shot through the head on 4th March 1982; François de Grossouvre, Mitterand's adviser, shot in the head twice (more reflex action) at the Elysée Palace on 7th April 1994; and Pierre-Yves Guézou, responsible for the Elysée phone tapping, found hanged in his home on 12 December 1994.
[edit] Funeral
At Bérégovoy's funeral, held at Nevers in an atmosphere of tension and shock, Mitterrand stated that media pressure in connection with the Pelat scandal was responsible for Bérégovoy's suicide. Targeting the press, he said "the honour of a man was given to dogs" but attributed to Bérégovoy "the greatness of one who chooses his destiny".
[edit] See also
[edit] Bérégovoy's ministry, 2 April 1992 - 29 March 1993
- Pierre Bérégovoy - Prime Minister
- Roland Dumas - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Pierre Joxe - Minister of Defense
- Paul Quilès - Minister of the Interior and Public Security
- Michel Sapin - Minister of Economy, Finance, and Privatization
- Michel Charasse - Minister of Budget
- Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Minister of Industry and External Commerce
- Martine Aubry - Minister of Labour, Employment, and Vocational Training
- Michel Vauzelle - Minister of Justice
- Jack Lang - Minister of National Education and Culture
- Louis Mermaz - Minister of Agriculture and Forests
- Ségolène Royal - Minister of Environment
- Frédérique Bredin - Minister of Youth and Sports
- Louis Le Pensec - Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories
- Jean-Louis Bianco - Minister of Transport, Housing, and Equipment
- Louis Mermaz - Minister of Relations with Parliament
- Bernard Kouchner - Minister of Health and Humanitarian Action
- Émile Zuccarelli - Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
- Michel Delebarre - Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reform
- Bernard Tapie - Minister of City
- Hubert Curien - Minister of Research and Space
- René Teulade - Minister of Social Affairs and Integration
Changes
- 23 May 1992 - Bernard Tapie leaves the ministry and the office of Minister of City is abolished
- 2 October 1992 - Martin Malvy succeeds Charasse as Minister of Budget. Jean-Pierre Soisson succeeds Mermaz as Minister of Agriculture, becoming also Minister of Rural Development.
- 26 December 1992 - The office of Minister of City is reestablished, with Bernard Tapie again as Minister.
- 9 March 1993 - Pierre Joxe leaves the ministry of Defence and was succeeded by Pierre Bérégovoy (who remain also Prime minister)
[edit] References
- ^ La mise en examen de M. Santini n'a pas empêché sa nomination au gouvernement, Le Monde, 22 June 2007 (French)
[edit] External links
- Association Pierre Bérégovoy, in French only
| Preceded by Nicole Questiaux |
Minister of Social Affairs and National Solidarity 1982–1984 |
Succeeded by Georgina Dufoix |
| Preceded by Jacques Delors |
Minister of the Economy and Finance 1984–1986 |
Succeeded by Édouard Balladur |
| Minister of Budget 1984–1986 |
Succeeded by Alain Juppé |
|
| Preceded by Édouard Balladur |
Minister of the Economy, Finance, and Privatization 1988–1992 |
Succeeded by Michel Sapin |
| Preceded by Edith Cresson |
Prime Minister of France 1992–1993 |
Succeeded by Édouard Balladur |
| Preceded by Pierre Joxe |
Minister of Defense 1993 |
Succeeded by François Léotard |
