Michel Debré

His Excellency
Michel Debré
Member of the National Assembly
In office
26 November 1962 – 14 May 1988
Constituency Réunion
French Minister of Defence
In office
22 June 1969 – 5 April 1973
Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas,
Pierre Messmer
Preceded by Pierre Messmer
Succeeded by Robert Galley
French Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
31 May 1968 – 16 June 1969
Prime Minister Georges Pompidou,
Maurice Couve de Murville
Preceded by Maurice Couve de Murville
Succeeded by Maurice Schumann
French Minister of Finances
In office
8 January 1966 – 31 May 1968
Prime Minister Georges Pompidou
Preceded by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Succeeded by Maurice Couve de Murville
99th Prime Minister of France
In office
8 January 1959 – 14 April 1962
President Charles de Gaulle
Preceded by Charles de Gaulle
Succeeded by Georges Pompidou
Personal details
Born Michel Jean-Pierre Debré
(1912-01-15)15 January 1912
Paris, France
Died 2 August 1996(1996-08-02) (aged 84)
Montlouis-sur-Loire, Indre-et-Loire, France
Political party Radical-Socialist Party
(1934–1947)
Rally of the French People
(1947–1955)
Union for the New Republic
(1958–1968)
Union of Democrats for the Republic
(1968–1976)
Rally for the Republic
(1976–1988)
Spouse(s) Anne-Marie Lemaresquier (m. 1936)
Children Vincent (b. 1939)
François (b. 1942)
Bernard (b. 1944)
Jean-Louis (b. 1944)
Alma mater École Libre des Sciences Politiques
University of Paris
Occupation Lawyer
Awards Legion of Honour
War Cross
Signature
Website Government profile site
Military service
Allegiance  Vichy France
 Free France
Service/branch  French Army
Years of service 1939–1945
Rank Commissioner of the Republic
Lieutenant
Unit French Cavalry
Battles/wars

World War II
:

Michel Jean-Pierre Debré[1] (French pronunciation: ​[miʃɛl dəbʁe]; 15 January 1912 – 2 August 1996) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962. In terms of political personality, he was intense and immovable, with a tendency to rhetorical extremism.[2]

Biography

Early years

Debré was born in Paris, the son of Robert Debré, the well-known Jewish professor of medicine, who is today considered by many to be the founder of modern pediatrics. His grandfather was a rabbi.[3] Michel Debré himself was a Roman Catholic.[1][3]

He studied at the Lycée Montaigne and then at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, obtained a diploma from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Paris. He then became a Professor of Law at the University of Paris. He also joined the École des Officiers de Réserve de la Cavalerie (Reserve Cavalry-Officers School) in Saumur. In 1934, at the age of twenty-two, Debré passed the entrance exam and became a member of the Conseil d'État. In 1938, he joined the staff of the Economy Minister Paul Reynaud.

Career

In 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, Debré was enlisted as a cavalry officer. He was taken prisoner in Artenay in June 1940 during the Battle of France but managed to escape in September of that year. He returned to the Conseil d'État, now under the administration of the Vichy regime, and was sworn in by Marshal Philippe Pétain. In 1942 he was promoted to maître des requêtes by the Minister of Justice. After the German invasion of the free zone in November 1942, Debré's political pétainisme disappeared, and in February 1943 he became involved in the French Resistance, joining the network Ceux de la Résistance (CDLR).

During the summer of 1943, General Charles de Gaulle gave Debré the task of making a list of prefects, or State representatives, who would replace those of the Vichy regime after the liberation. In August 1944 de Gaulle made him Commissaire de la République for Angers, and in 1945, the Provisional Government charged him with the task of reforming the French Civil Service. Debré created the École nationale d'administration, whose idea was formulated by Jean Zay before the war.

Under the Fourth Republic, Michel Debré at first supported the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance, but defected to the Radical-Socialist Party on the advice of General Charles de Gaulle, who reportedly told him and several other politicians, including Jacques Chaban-Delmas,"Allez au parti radical. C'est là que vous trouverez les derniers vestiges du sens de l'Etat" – "Go to the radical party. It is there that you will find the last vestiges of the meaning of the state".[4] He then joined the Rally of the French People and was elected senator of Indre-et-Loire, a position he held from 1948 to 1958. In 1957, he founded Le Courrier de la colère, a newspaper that fiercely defended French Algeria and called for the return to power of de Gaulle. In the 2 December 1957 issue, Debré wrote:

This explicit appeal to the insurgency led the socialist politician Alain Savary to write that "In the case of the OAS insurgency, the soldiers are not the culprit; the culprit is Debré."[5]

Family

Michel Debré had four sons: Vincent Debré (1939–), businessman; François Debré (1942–), journalist; Bernard Debré (born in 1944), urologist and politician; and his fraternal twin, Jean-Louis Debré, politician. See Debré family.

Government

Michel Debré with David Ben-Gurion at Hotel Matignon, on the first official visit of Israeli Prime Minister to Paris. June, 1960

Michel Debré became the Garde des Sceaux (Minister of Justice) in the cabinet of General de Gaulle on 1 June 1958.[6] He played an important role in drafting the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and on its acceptance he took up the new position of Prime Minister of France, which he held from 8 January 1959[7] to 1962.

After the 1962 Évian Accords referendum that ended the Algerian War and gave auto-determination to Algeria was approved by a nearly ten-to-one margin, de Gaulle replaced him with Georges Pompidou. In November, during the parliamentary elections that followed the dissolution of the National Assembly, he tried to be elected Député for Indre-et-Loire. Defeated, in March 1963 he decided to go to Réunion, an island he had visited for less than twenty-four hours on 10 July 1959 when on a trip with President de Gaulle. This choice reflects Debré's fear that what remained of the French colonial empires would follow the path trodden by Algeria – that of independence, towards which he was not sympathetic. Debré wanted to take action against the Communist Party of Réunion that had been founded by Paul Vergès a few years earlier. The movement sought self-determination for the island and the removal of its position as an overseas department, and had staged demonstrations on the island a few day earlier. He also noted that the invalidation of Gabriel Macé's election as Mayor of Saint-Denis rendered the post open to the opposition, so he took the decision to win over this mandate.

He returned in the government in 1966 as Economy and Finance Minister. After the May 1968 crisis, he became Foreign Minister, then, one year later, he served as Defence Minister of President Georges Pompidou. In that role, he became a hated figure of the left, because of his determination to expropriate the land of 107 peasant farmers and shepherds on the Larzac plateau, to extend an existing military base. The resulting civil disobedience campaign was ultimately victorious. Considered as a guardian of the Gaullist orthodoxy, he was marginalized after the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as President of France in 1974. He criticized with virulence his foreign policy. In 1979 he took a major part in the Rally for the Republic (RPR) campaign against the European federalism and was elected member of the European Parliament in order to defend the principle of Europe of nations. But later, he accused Jacques Chirac and the RPR lead to moderate their speech, and so, he was a dissident candidate in the 1981 presidential election. He obtained only 1.6% of votes.

Politics in Réunion

Michel Debré arrived on the island of Réunion in April 1963, and succeeded in being elected Député for Saint-Denis on 6 May despite local opposition to the Ordonnance Debré law he had introduced in 1960, that allowed civil servants in the overseas departments and territories of France to be recalled to Metropolitan France if suspected of disturbing public order.[8] Supported by those who rejected autonomy, he immediately became the leader of the local right-wing. This state of affairs would be challenged by Pierre Lagourgue that during the next decade.

To justify the departmentalization of the island that occurred in 1946 and to preserve its inhabitants from the temptation of independence, Debré implemented an economic development policy, and opened the island's first family planning center. He personally fought to get Paris to create a second high school on the south of the island, in Le Tampon, when at the time there was only one, the Lycée Leconte-de-Lisle, that catered for many thousands of inhabitants.

For a period of around two decades in the twentieth century (1968-1982), 1,630 children from Réunion were relocated to France, particularly to Creuse. These children, known as Les enfants de la Creuse, were brought to light in 2002 when Réunion exile Jean-Jacques Martial made a legal complaint against politician Michel Debré (who organized the controversial displacement) for "kidnapping of a minor, roundup and deportation".[9] In 2005, a similar case was brought against the French Government by the Association of Réunion of Creuse.[10]

Political career

Governmental functions

Electoral mandates

European Parliament

Senate of France

National Assembly

General Council

Municipal Council

Debré's Government, 8 January 1959 – 15 April 1962

Changes

References

  1. 1 2
  2. ↑ David Wilsford, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp 97-105
  3. 1 2 Poliakov, Léon (1960). "FRANCE". American Jewish Year Book. 61: 204. JSTOR 23605151. (Registration required (help)).
  4. ↑ ladepeche.fr. "Radical Party" (in French). Retrieved 16 December 2007.
  5. ↑ de-gaulle.info. "La Cendre Et La Braise" (in French). Retrieved 16 December 2007.
  6. ↑ Décret du 1er juin 1958 portant nomination des membres du gouvernement
  7. ↑ Décret du 8 janvier 1959 portant nomination du Premier ministre, Journal Officiel de la République Française, 9 January 1959
  8. ↑ Ordonnance n°60-1101 du 15 octobre 1960 relative au rappel d'office par le ministre dont ils dépendant des fonctionnaires de l'État en service dans les DOM dont le comportement est de nature à troubler l'ordre public
  9. ↑ Jean-Jacques Martial (2003). Une enfance volée. Les Quatre Chemins. p. 113. ISBN 978-2-84784-110-7. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  10. ↑ Châtain, Georges (August 18, 2005). "Les Réunionnais de la Creuse veulent faire reconnaître leur " déportation " en métropole "". Le Monde. Retrieved September 13, 2012.

Further reading

Primary sources

Political offices
Preceded by
Robert Lecourt		 Minister of Justice
1958–1959 		Succeeded by
Edmond Michelet
Preceded by
Pierre Garet		 interim Minister of Reconstruction and Housing
1958 		Succeeded by
—
Preceded by
Vincent Badie		 interim Minister of Veterans and War Victims
1958 		Succeeded by
Edmond Michelet
Preceded by
Charles de Gaulle		 Prime Minister of France
1959–1962 		Succeeded by
Georges Pompidou
Preceded by
André Boulloche		 interim Minister of National Education
1959–1960 		Succeeded by
Louis Joxe
Preceded by
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing		 Minister of Economy and Finance
1966–1968 		Succeeded by
Maurice Couve de Murville
Preceded by
Maurice Couve de Murville		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
1968–1969 		Succeeded by
Maurice Schumann
Preceded by
Pierre Messmer		 Minister of National Defense
1969–1973 		Succeeded by
Robert Galley
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