(b. Marsillargues, 14 Sept. 1910; d. 6 May 1986) French; mayor of Marseilles 1944 – 5, Minister of the Interior 1981 – 4 The son of a rakish lawyer, from the Protestant Cevennes, Defferre was educated at the lycée in Nîmes, read law in the University of Aix-en-Provence, and practised at the Marseilles Bar from 1931 to 1951. Defferre was a minor Socialist activist before the war but during the Vichy years rose rapidly through the ranks to join the clandestine SFIO Executive Bureau. Defferre's importance was both as a local politician (as cleaner-up of the notoriously ungovernable city of Marseilles) and as a reformer in brief spells of national office. At the end of the war he took over Le Petit Provençal and built up a fiefdom with interests everywhere in the city. As the boss of the powerful Bouches-du-Rhône SFIO federation, Defferre conducted a long war against the Socialist Party leader Guy Mollet, opposing, for example, the leadership's line on Algeria and taking a resolutely anti-Communist and centrist stance. His plans in 1964 for a centre-left, anti-Communist federation of the left in 1965 came to nothing. Despite this anti-Communism, Defferre was instrumental in bringing Mitterrand (with his strategy of alliance of the left) to the leadership of the new Parti Socialiste at the 1971 Épinay congress. He supported Mitterrand thereafter with a curious division of loyalties in 1979 between Mitterrand and Mauroy (the federation's vote was divided). Defferre was also presidential candidate in the shambolic Socialist campaign of 1969, when he polled a mere 5.07 per cent of the vote. As Minister for Overseas France he was responsible for the 1956 outline law foreshadowing decolonization. As Minister of the Interior in the Socialist government of 1981 he was responsible for the controversial decentralization laws which substantially reduced central oversight of local government and devolved powers to localities and regions. Defferre was a brutal power broker, who had some success at national level and was typical of big city machine politics. He was a dapper dresser and a duellist as well as something of a "card".
Gaston Defferre
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Gaston Defferre (September 14, 1910, Marsillargues, Hérault - May 7, 1986, Marseille) was a French socialist politician.
Lawyer and member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) political party, he was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistance Socialist group during World War II. A long-standing member of the National Assembly (1945-1958, 1962-1986) and member of the Senate (1959-1962), he also served for many years as mayor of Marseille (1944-1945, 1953-1986). He was a formidable political force in the South-East, where he owned the major centre-left newspaper Le Provençal (which he co-founded at the Liberation) and later acquired the right-wing daily le Méridional.
He was Merchant Marine Minister (1950-1952) then Overseas Minister (1956-1957). He prepared the end of French colonialism in Sub-saharan Africa.
In his region, he faced a strong French Communist Party (PCF) with which he was frequently in conflict. As Mayor he relied on the support of the non-Gaullist center-right in the municipal assembly. In the same way, he advocated a national alliance between the SFIO and the Chritian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP). Before the 1965 presidential election, L'Express published an identikit of the best center-left candidate under the name of "Mister X". It corresponded with Defferre's profile (L'Express co-founder Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber being a well known advocate of a Third Force alliance of socialists, Christian democrats and Radicals). But, failing to create an SFIO-MRP-Radical Party federation, he gave way to Francois Mitterrand, whose preferred strategy for the Socialists was the formation of a left-wing coalition including the PCF.
However, he was the Socialist candidate in 1969 for the French presidency, with the support of ex-Prime-Minister Pierre Mendès-France, who would have been Prime Minister again had Defferre been elected. But he was soundly defeated, suffering from the polarisation of French politics following the events of May 1968, scoring only 5% of the vote, the lowest ever score for a French socialist candidate . The failure of Defferre prompted the birth of the new Socialist Party (PS) and buried the idea of an alliance with the centre-right.
Having been the main opponent of Guy Mollet in the party, and leader of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, he helped François Mitterrand to take the leadership during the Epinay Congress (1971), in spite of Mitterrand's strategy of an alliance with the Communists. He later served as Mitterrand's Interior Minister from 1981 to 1984. He was the architect of the 1982 decentralization reforms. Town and Country Planning Minister until 1986, he died in office as Mayor of Marseille. His widow, Edmonde Charles-Roux, is president of the literary circle the Académie Goncourt.
Political career
Governmental functions
Secretary of State for Information : January-June 1946.
Undersecretary of State for Overseas France : 1946-1947.
Minister of Merchant Marine : 1950-1951 / March-August 1951.
Minister of Overseas France : 1956-1957.
Minister of State, Minister of Interior and Decentralization : 1981-1983.
Minister of Interior and Decentralization : 1983-1984.
Minister of State, Minister of Planning and Land Development : 1984-1986 (He died in 1986).
Electoral mandates
National Assembly of France
Member of the National Assembly of France for Bouches-du-Rhône : 1945-1958 / 1962-1981 (Became minister in 1981). Elected in 1945, reelected in June 1946, November 1946, 1951, 1956, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1981.
Senate of France
Senator of Bouches-du-Rhône : 1959-1962 (Reelected member of the National Assembly of France in 1962). Elected in 1959.
Municipal Council
Mayor of Marseille : 1944-1945 / 1953-1986 (He died in 1986). Reelected in 1953, 1959, 1965, 1971, 1977, 1983.
Municipal councillor of Marseille : 1944-1945 / 1953-1986 (He died in 1986). Reelected in 1953, 1959, 1965, 1971, 1977, 1983.
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