(b. Paris, 1 Mar. 1915; d. 2000) French; Prime Minister 1969 – 72 Jacques Delmas (the Chaban was his wartime alias) was born to a middle-class family. He was educated at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, which he detested, and managed on his second attempt to enter the Finance Inspectorate, an élite division of the higher civil service. His good Resistance record, his charm, and his energy were valuable political assets which he, like his friend Mitterrand, exploited to the full. He chose the south-west town of Bordeaux as the site for his ambitions, becoming its deputy in 1946 and its mayor the following year. Over the next thirty years he constructed an impregnable power base in Bordeaux and the surrounding region, based on clientelism and the judicious construction of personal alliances which transcended party barriers. In the Fourth Republic he demonstrated the flexibility which became his trademark by combining ministerial office with active, if discreet, participation in the plots which led to the return to power of de Gaulle in 1958. The following year he was elected president of a National Assembly whose powers had been greatly reduced by the new constitution and which he turned into a reliable auxiliary of the new political order. Yet at the same time he cultivated a reformist image by advocating a "new society" which would end the rigidities of France's social and political institutions. It was this which made him so attractive a figure to the Gaullist high command in the dangerous political climate produced by the 1968 events. Pompidou, de Gaulle's successor as President, thus appointed him Prime Minister in 1969. As Prime Minister Chaban tried to institutionalize the "new society" by liberalizing the state-run broadcasting system and strengthening trade union rights in the public sector. The problem with his reformism was that it made no impact on the left, alienated the powerful right-wing faction in the Gaullist Party, and increasingly irritated President Pompidou, whose private office waged merciless war on him. By 1972 he was under fire in the press for his personal tax arrangements which, though legal, hardly fitted in with his claim to want a more socially just France. The botched referendum on British membership of the EEC, and an injudicious attempt to shore up his position by obtaining a parliamentary vote of confidence, sealed his fate. In June 1972, in a brutal demonstration of presidential power, Pompidou sacked him.
Out of office, Chaban mended his fences with the Gaullist Party and prepared for the next presidential contest which, in view of Pompidou's incurable illness, was likely to come soon. The 1974 election, however, proved to be a disaster. He announced his candidature before Pompidou was in his grave, performed badly on television, and could not shake off the tax story or the rumours about his private life. Faced with the smooth reformism of his rival conservative candidate Giscard d'Estaing and the implacable hostility of Pompidou's protégé, Chirac, who held the key post of Interior Minister, his campaign disintegrated. The erstwhile prophet of the new society found his support limited to the Gaullist old guard. On round one he was eliminated with only 15 per cent of the vote. His presidential ambitions were over. Yet Chaban remained a prominent political figure. His Bordeaux fiefdom was untouched by the defeat and he continued to nurse dreams of returning to the premiership, dreams which, in the changed politics of the mid-1980s, might have come true. His real strength was as a manager of the National Assembly, whose president he became in 1978 and again in 1986. By the 1990s there were signs that the Bordeaux political machine which he had controlled for so long was starting to break down and he did not stand in the 1995 municipal elections.
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
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| Jacques Chaban-Delmas | |
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| In office 20 June 1969 – 6 July 1972 |
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| President | Georges Pompidou |
| Preceded by | Maurice Couve de Murville |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Messmer |
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| In office 9 December 1959 – 24 June 1969 3 April 1978–2 April 1986 2 July 1981–23 June 1988 |
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| Preceded by | André Le Troquer (1st) Edgar Faure (2nd) Louis Mermaz (3rd) |
| Succeeded by | Achille Peretti (2nd) Louis Mermaz (2nd) Laurent Fabius (3rd) |
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| In office 1947 – 1995 |
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| Born | 7 March 1915 |
| Died | 10 November 2000 (aged 85) |
| Political party | UDR |
| Occupation | Civil Servant |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Jacques Chaban-Delmas (7 March 1915 in Paris – 10 November 2000 in Paris) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. In addition, for almost half a century, he was Mayor of Bordeaux (1947 to 1995) and a deputy for the Gironde département.
Jacques Chaban-Delmas was born Jacques Delmas. In the resistance underground, his final nom de guerre was Chaban; after World War II, he formally changed his name to Chaban-Delmas. As a general of a brigade in the resistance, he took part in the Parisian insurrection of August 1944. He was the youngest French general since the First Empire.
A member of the Radical Party, he finally joined the Gaullist Rally of the French People (RPF), which opposed the Fourth Republic's governments. In 1947, he became mayor of Bordeaux, which was for 48 years his electoral fief. As a member of the National Assembly, he sat with the RPF.
In 1953, when the RPF group split (and Charles de Gaulle supposedly retired), Chaban-Delmas became head of the Union of Republicans for Social Action and president of the National Centre of Social Republicans party. He "tied up" with center-left parties and joined Pierre Mendès-France's cabinet one year later as Minister of Public Works. He took part in the center-left coalition Republican Front, winning of the 1956 legislative election. He was notably Defence Minister in 1957–1958. His governmental participations during the Fourth Republic inspired the distrust of de Gaulle and some Gaullists.
Following Gen. de Gaulle's return to power in 1958, Chaban-Delmas agreed to the advent of the French Fifth Republic and the new Constitution. He took part in the foundation of the Union for the New Republic (UNR) and was elected, against de Gaulle's will, chairman of the French National Assembly. He kept this function until the end of de Gaulle's presidency in 1969. Contrary to some Gaullists (Jacques Soustelle...), he supported de Gaulle's policy to end the Algerian War of Independence. During the 1959 UNR Congress, he was the first politician to evoke a "reserved presidential domain" mainly composed of Defense and Diplomacy. This interpretation of the Constitution of 1958 survived today.
In 1969, when Georges Pompidou accedeed to the presidency, he chose M. Chaban-Delmas as Prime minister, who had concluded that the May 68 crisis was the consequence of a strained and conflicted society. He tried to promote what he called "a new society", based on dialogue between the social forces. He relaxed the government authority over mass media. As a result, he was viewed as too "progressive" by the "conservative" wing of the Gaullist movement. He was suspected to "tie up" again with the center-left. Indeed, his advisers who inspired the "new society" programme was considered as close to the center-left (Simon Nora and Jacques Delors who will serve as Finance Minister under François Mitterrand). Besides, a latent conflict opposed Chaban-Delmas to President Pompidou and the presidential circle. They accused him to weaken the presidency in aid of himself. The satiric paper Le Canard Enchaîné accused him of breaking the law through tax evasion and in 1972, PM Chaban-Delmas canvassed for a vote of confidence in the Assembly. This he did obtain, but the President still managed to force his resignation.
Two years later, following the death in office of President Pompidou, Chaban-Delmas ran for the presidency himself. He was supported by the "lords of gaullism", but 43 personalities close to the now defunct president, led by Jacques Chirac, published the Call of the 43 in favour of the candidacy of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Chaban-Delmas was defeated on the first ballot of the French presidential election, 1974, winning only 15.10% of the vote. Chirac became President Giscard d'Estaing's Prime Minister.
Chaban-Delmas stood in the Gaullist Party (RPR) and, in spite of Chirac's leadership, returned to the chair of the National Assembly (1978 - 1981). Due to his friendship with President Mitterrand, his name was mentioned as a possible Prime minister during the first "cohabitation" (1986 - 1988), but he instead became president of the National Assembly for the third time and Chirac again became Premier.
Chaban-Delmas retired in 1995, towards the end of his eighth term as Mayor of Bordeaux.
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Political career
Governmental functions
Prime minister : 1969-1972
Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism : June-August 1954 / 1954-1955
Minister of Housing and Reconstruction : September-November 1954
Minister of State : 1956-1957
Minister of Defense and Armed forces : 1957-1958
Electoral mandates
President of the National Assembly of France : 1958-1969 / 1978-1981 / 1986-1988
Member of the National Assembly of France for the Gironde 2nd : 1946-1969 (Became Prime minister in 1969) / 1972-1997
Mayor of Bordeaux : 1947-1995
President of the Regional Council of Aquitaine : 1974-1979 / 1985-1988
President of the Urban Community of Bordeaux : 1967-1983 / 1983-1995
Vice-president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux : 1977-1983
M. Chaban-Delmas's Cabinet; 22 June 1969 – 6 July 1972
- Minister of Foreign Affairs - Maurice Schumann
- ... National Defense - Michel Debré
- ... the Interior - Raymond Marcellin
- ... Economy and Finance - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
- ... Industrial and Scientific Development - François-Xavier Ortoli
- ... Labour, Employment, and Population - Joseph Fontanet
- ... Justice - René Pleven
- ... National Education - Olivier Guichard
- ... Veterans and War Victims - Henri Duvillard
- ... Cultural Affairs - Edmond Michelet
- ... Agriculture - Jacques Duhamel
- ... Housing and Equipment - Albin Chalandon
- ... Transport - Raymond Mondon
- ... Relations with Parliament - Roger Frey
- ... Public Health and Social Security - Robert Boulin
- ... Posts and Telecommunications - Robert Galley
Changes
- 19 October 1970 - André Bettencourt succeeds Michelet (d. 9 October) as interim Minister of Cultural Affairs
- 7 January 1971 - Jacques Duhamel succeeds Bettencourt as Minister of Cultural Affairs. Michel Cointat succeeds Duhamel as Minister of Agriculture. Jean Chamant succeeds Mondon (d. 31 December 1970) as Minister of Transport. Roger Frey becomes Minister of Administrative Reforms and is not replaced as Minister of Relations with Parliament.
- 25 February 1971 - Pierre Messmer enters the ministry as Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories.
Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2008) |
Chaban-Delmas was a first class athlete, playing tennis for Racing Club de France before the war and rugby for CASG and C.A. Bèglais
- Finalist in the senior men's doubles of the French Open (1965)
- Champion of the senior men's doubles at the French Open (1970)
- Won a cap for France as a left wing against a British Empire XV in Richmond on 28 April 1945, ten days before the war ended in Europe (by that time he had been a general in the French Army for about a year!).
- His role was played by Julien Boisselier in the docu-fiction Le Grand Charles on Charles de Gaulle's life for which actor Bernard Farcy was nominated for an Emmy Award.
- He was portrayed by Alain Delon in the 1966 film Is Paris Burning? (French: Paris brûle-t-il ?). The film, directed by René Clément, depicts the events surrounding the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
References
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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