Antoine Pinay
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Antoine Pinay
(b. Saint-Symphorien-sur-Oise, 30 Dec. 1891; d. 15 Dec. 1994) French; mayor of Saint-Chamond (Loire) 1929 – 79, Prime Minister Mar.-Dec. 1952 The son of a hat-maker, Pinay was educated at a Catholic church school, and became a leather-maker. A volunteer in the First World War, he was awarded the Croix-de-guerre medal. He voted full powers to Marshal Pétain in 1940 but after the Liberation, in 1946, he was returned to the Constituent Assembly for the Loire and remained a deputy until 1958: he headed the Independents and Peasants Group for Social Action in the Assembly from 1956 to 1958. Pinay is now chiefly remembered for his brief government from 6 March 1952 to 22 December of the same year. He was hostile to public sector growth, planning, technocrats, and dirigisme, and sympathetic to business. Like most non-Gaullist conservatives he was Atlanticist but he was not a die-hard colonialist. His success in forming an avowedly right-wing administration was important because it showed that conservatives were no longer shut out of Republican government. France was then gripped by inflation and Pinay took the unpopular post of Finance Minister along with that of Prime Minister to enable the introduction of measures to deal with the crisis. He presented his plan as commonsensical and himself as the defender of the consumer and the franc and at the same time issued a government loan (emprunt Pinay) which was predictably popular as it enabled families to escape the tax net. When Pinay's government fell 56 per cent regretted his departure. However 1952 was a year of recession and the overheating of the world economy, which was the result of the Korean War, was being dissipated with falling wholesale and retail prices. The slowing down of the economy also reduced the demand for credit and this too brought down inflation. Although Pinay did restore faith in the franc he did so at the cost of a fall in investment, balance of payments problems, and the talk of a balanced budget was rhetoric. He tried several times to form another administration without success, although he was briefly Foreign Secretary in the government of Edgar Faure from February 1955 to the end of that year and represented France at the Messina negotiations to promote European integration, to which he was well disposed. Pinay helped create the majority for de Gaulle's investiture. He was made Finance Minister in de Gaulle's government of June 1958 and was associated with de Gaulle's stabilization policies as well, although this time the position was more intricate even if his reputation was important in ensuring its success. He endorsed the overall plan even though he had opposed some of its key measures. Pinay's remaining time in de Gaulle's government was very uncomfortable. In a famous encounter Pinay raised the matter of de Gaulle's attitude to NATO at a Cabinet meeting. This, perfectly constitutional, request was met with "Monsieur le Ministre des Finances is interested in foreign policy problems". Pinay persisted so de Gaulle closed the meeting. De Gaulle later accused Pinay of being in the wrong Republic. Pinay was dismissed on 13 January 1960. Pinay thereafter played a secondary, if inspirational, role in French conservative politics.
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Antoine Pinay
| Antoine Pinay | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 8 March 1952 – 8 January 1953 |
|
| Preceded by | Edgar Faure |
| Succeeded by | René Mayer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 December 1891 |
| Died | 13 December 1994 (aged 102) |
| Political party | CNIP |
Antoine Pinay (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twan pine]; 30 December 1891, Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise, Rhône – 13 December 1994, Saint-Chamond, Loire) was a French conservative politician. He served as Prime Minister of France in 1952.
Life
As a young man, Pinay fought in World War I and injured his arm so that it was paralyzed for the rest of his life.
After the war, he managed a small business and in 1929 he was elected mayor of Saint-Chamond (Loire).[1]
He was elected to the French National Assembly in 1936, running as a conservative. On 10 July 1940 he voted to give full constitutional power to the Maréchal Philippe Pétain, leading to the creation of the Vichy Regime. In 1941, Antoine Pinay was appointed to the Conseil National of the Vichy Regime. He was also awarded the Francisque.[2] During the Occupation, Antoine Pinay remained mayor of Saint-Chamond, although he had been urged by General Georges to move to Algiers, in order to better protect the residents of this city. Yet, trying to associate him with Vichy is inappropriate : he resigned from the Conseil National within a few months and refused any official position with the Vichy regime, such as the préfecture de l'Hérault offered by Laval. Besides, he gave several hundreds of identity papers to help Jews and Résistance members flee from France to Algiers or Switzerland. An official commission in 1946 recognized his long lasting opposition to the Nazis and the help he gave to the Résistance and let him totally free of any charge.
In 1944 he was first placed on house arrest, and stripped of his right to be candidate to an election on 5 September 1945. After the intervention of René Cassin, the vice-president of the Conseil d'État, who pointed his fierce opposition to the German occupation, his citizen rights were restored on 5 October 1945. On 2 June 1946 he could successfully run for election to the Assemblée Constituante as a moderate candidate.[3]
He helped create a conservative party, the National Center of Independents and Peasants (CNIP). He acquired the reputation as one of France's more spirited politicians and in 1952 became Prime Minister in 1952 by virtue of being the most popular elected CNIP official. His ministry was seen as the return of the "classical right", discredited since the Liberation. He stabilized the finances of the French nation and the French currency.
In 1955, he was one of the participants of the Messina Conference, which would lead to the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
During the May 1958 crisis precipitated by the Algerian war, he supported Charles de Gaulle's return to power and approved of the Fifth Republic's constitution. He served as Finance Minister until 1960. In 1973, he was made "Médiateur de la République" (Ombudsman) by President Georges Pompidou.[4]
Having died at age of 102, he is the third longest lived national head of government or head of state in history, behind only Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum and Celâl Bayar.
Pinay's Ministry, 8 March 1952 – 8 January 1953
- Antoine Pinay – President of the Council and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs
- Henri Queuille – Vice President of the Council
- Robert Schuman – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- René Pleven – Minister of National Defense
- Charles Brune – Minister of the Interior
- Jean-Marie Louvel – Minister of Commerce and Energy
- Pierre Garet – Minister of Labour and Social Security
- Léon Martinaud-Deplat – Minister of Justice
- Pierre-Olivier Lapie – Minister of National Education
- Emmanuel Temple – Minister of Veterans and War Victims
- Camille Laurens – Minister of Agriculture
- Pierre Pflimlin – Minister of Overseas France
- André Morice – 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
- Jean Letourneau – Minister of Relations with Partner States
Changes
- 11 August 1952 – André Marie succeeds Lapie as Minister of National Education.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury |
Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism 1950–1952 |
Succeeded by André Morice |
| Preceded by Edgar Faure |
Prime Minister of France 1952–1953 |
Succeeded by René Mayer |
| Preceded by Robert Buron |
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs 1952–1953 |
Succeeded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury |
| Preceded by Edgar Faure |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1955–1956 |
Succeeded by Christian Pineau |
| Preceded by Edgar Faure |
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs 1958–1960 |
Succeeded by Wilfrid Baumgartner |
| Preceded by Édouard Bonnefous |
interim Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism 1958 |
Succeeded by Robert Buron |
- ^ The New York Times 14 December 1994
- ^ Antoine Pinay, ou l’empreinte d’un mythe L'Humanité, 14 December 1994
- ^ Biography on the Assemblée Nationale Web site (Covers only Pinay's carrier from 1936 to 1958)
- ^ TIME Magazine, 19 Feb. 1973.
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