Jack Mathieu Émile Lang
(b. Miracourt, 2 Sept. 1939) French; Arts Minister 1981 – 84, 1988 – 91 The son of an industrialist, Lang was educated at the Lycée Poincaré in Nancy and the Law Faculty in Nancy as well as at the élite IEP in Paris. He was a professor of law and a dean of the Nancy Law Faculty. He also founded the International Festival of Student Theatre and was made head of the National Theatre of Chaillot (a controversial tenure until he was fired in 1974). His political career started under Mendès France but he joined the new Socialist Party in 1972 and began a rapid rise. He ran the 1979 European elections for the party and was a long-serving Minister of Culture — a high-profile minister and a zealous defender of President Mitterrand. As minister he gave the arts a much needed strategy. He also started by attacking American cultural imperialism (he preferred Castro, he said) but ended by enticing Disneyland to Paris and by presenting the médaille de la chevalier to Sylvester Stallone in 1990: "one culture does not threaten another", he said. He left office a popular figure, especially with the young, and was proposed for the presidency as Socialist candidate in 1995 (but withdrew). His subsequent place within Jospin's PS was marginal.
