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