Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Raymond Barre

 
Political Biography: Raymond Barre
Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > Political Biographies

(b. Réunion, 12 Apr. 1924) French; Prime Minister 1976 – 81, Presidential candidate 1988 Barre was born in the Indian Ocean island of Réunion and his early years were traumatized by the bankruptcy and imprisonment of his father. He studied economics at Paris, entered the University, and was the author of a best selling textbook on macroeconomics. In 1967 he was plucked from obscurity by de Gaulle to become one of France's two commissioners in the European Community. He first acquired prominence in November 1968 when he provided de Gaulle with the arguments to prevent the devaluation of the franc which virtually everybody else, in the aftermath of the May 1968 events, believed to be necessary. After leaving the European Commission, he returned to academic life before being invited by President Giscard d'Estaing to join the government headed by Jacques Chirac in 1976. When Chirac took the unprecedented step, in the Fifth Republic, of walking out, Barre took over as Prime Minister. Giscard had in mind his high professional reputation, ("the best economist in France"), his solid administrative competence, his apparent absence of political ambition, and his image as a prudent technician. He looked in every sense to be the antithesis of the aggressive, and unreliable, Chirac. As Prime Minister, Barre embarked on a policy of sound money and high taxation in order to control France's propensity to inflation; he also made tentative steps to limit economic dirigisme, by decontrolling some prices. His government was relatively successful in moderating the worst effects of the late 1970s recession. Yet he found his political authority constantly under challenge not only from the left-wing opposition headed by Mitterrand but also from the neo-Gaullist RPR which Chirac had founded in order to further his presidential ambitions. By attacking Barre, Chirac hoped to destabilize Giscard. In 1981, the strategy paid off — Giscard was defeated by the Socialist Mitterrand in the presidential election.

As Prime Minister Barre had endured dreadful opinion poll ratings. In opposition, however, his political stock rose fast. Once the initial euphoria of the left's victory had worn off and the failings of the Mauroy government became obvious, he was able to draw the dividends of his image of calm authority and economic competence — less unstable than Chirac, more human than Giscard. By the mid-1980s polls regularly identified him as the most popular right-wing political leader, and he stood for the presidency in 1988. His 1988 election campaign was, however, widely regarded as a disaster. He lacked a reliable party base to counter Chirac's RPR, his professorial self satisfaction infuriated younger politicians, his campaigning style seemed curiously casual. He was eliminated in round one, with 16.52 per cent of the vote.

Barre's self assurance was unaffected by defeat. He continued to deliver weighty pronouncements on the state of the nation and to stand ostentatiously aloof from the frantic politicking of the French right. His isolation contributed to his popularity, but also made the hopes he nurtured of a presidential comeback illusory. He withdrew from the pre-campaign for the 1995 presidential election when it became clear that he lacked any solid support. He compensated for his loss of a national destiny by becoming, like many of the politicians whom he affected to despise, a big city baron. In 1995 he was elected mayor of Lyons, France's second city.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Biography: Raymond Barre
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Biographies

Raymond Barre (born 1924) served as prime minister of France from 1976 until 1981, heading the last of the Gaullist-Giscardian governments that dominated the first quarter-century of the Fifth Republic. He remained politically active, noted for his expertise as a professional economist and his commitment to reducing the state's role in directing the economy.

Raymond Barre was born in 1924 on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. After completing secondary school there, he went to Paris to study law and economics, earning degrees from the Institute for Political Studies in Paris and passing the aggrégation exam which allows individuals to teach in the university system.

Barre then pursued an academic career. At age 26 he joined the economics department of the University of Caen and subsequently taught at the Institute for Political Studies. He was appointed to the chair in political economy at the University of Paris in 1963.

Barre's early career was not restricted to academe. In the early years of the Fifth Republic (1958 to the present), he held a variety of advisory posts. For example, he served on the staff of the minister of industry from 1959 until 1962. In 1966, he was a consultant on wage and price policy for the Economic Planning Commission.

From 1967 until 1972, Barre served as vice president of the commission of the European Communities (Common Market) in charge of all economic and financial questions. He also helped develop French housing policy and served as a member of the board of directors of the Bank of France from 1973 until 1976.

Until then, Barre had never run for political office. His formal political career began in January 1976 when then Prime Minister Jacques Chirac appointed him minister of the economy and finance. That position did not last long. In August, President Giscard d'Estaing asked for and received Chirac's resignation and, in a surprising move, appointed Barre to succeed him as prime minister while retaining the Economics and Finance portfolio. Barre remained prime minister until Giscard's defeat in the 1981 presidential elections by François Mitterrand.

The years 1976-1981 were hard ones for the French economy. Like many other nations, France was still reeling from the slump that followed the 1973 oil embargo by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Although France actually was outperforming most of its competitors, Giscard and Barre thought the only longterm solution was to minimize state involvement and move toward a more classical market-driven economy. Therefore, they tried to loosen the general power the government had over investment, plant location, production, and other decisions. They refused to help out firms that were in danger of bankruptcy. The one area in which the Giscard-Barre team continued to strengthen state intervention was in aiding selected companies that could become "national champions, " single strong firms in each industrial area that would be competitive in both the domestic and international markets.

Those policies did not stem the decline or produce a new spurt of economic growth. Many observers felt that Barre and his policies were responsible for France's economic slump which persisted after 1976. For others, including Barre himself, the problems were seen as a necessary start in restructuring the economy, the benefits of which would only become apparent late in the 1980s or 1990s. Largely as a result of this economic decline, Giscard lost the presidency and the Gaullist-Giscardian coalition lost its majority in the National Assembly when elections were held in 1981. Barre was reelected to the Assembly and became one of the leading opponents of President Mitterrand and his Socialist government's economic policies.

The French presidential elections in 1988 saw Barre running for the position as a candidate from the Gaullist party. Although he was defeated by the incumbent, Mitterand, Barre continued to keep active in politics after his unsuccessful presidential campaign by backing Lyon, France as the home of the Central Bank of the United Europe.

Further Reading

There are no biographies of Raymond Barre. On his role in the Giscard years, see J. R. Frears, France in the Giscard Presidency (London, 1981), and for the ideas he and Giscard tried to implement, see Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French Democracy (1977).

Concerning Barre's activities after leaving the post of the Prime

Minister see "Barre, Barre Black Sheep" in Economist (April 2, 1988), and "M. Rocard's Umbrella" in Spectator (July 30, 1988).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Raymond Barre
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Columbia Encyclopedia - People
Barre, Raymond (bär), 1924-2007, French politician. He studied at the Institut D'Études Politiques, taught, and then, in 1959, became an economic adviser to the government of Charles de Gaulle. He later was the European Economic Community's commissioner for economic and financial affairs (1967-73). In 1976, he became minister of foreign trade and then succeeded Jacques Chirac as premier, serving from 1976 to 1981. A conservative politician, he pursued an austere economic program. He was elected to the national assembly in 1978 as a member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF). In 1988 Barre placed third in the presidential election, behind François Mitterrand and Chirac. He served as mayor of Lyons, France, from 1995 to 2001.
Wikipedia: Raymond Barre
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Raymond Barre

156th Prime Minister of France
7th Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic
In office
26 August 1976 – 21 May 1981
President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Preceded by Jacques Chirac
Succeeded by Pierre Mauroy
In office
1995 – 2001
Preceded by Michel Noir
Succeeded by Gérard Collomb
In office
1967-07-02 – 1973-01-05
Preceded by Robert Marjolin
Succeeded by Wilhelm Haferkamp
Born 12 April 1924(1924-04-12)
Saint-Denis, Réunion
Died 25 August 2007 (aged 83)
Paris
Political party close to RI -1978- UDF
Profession Economist
Religion Roman Catholic
The house where Raymond Barre was born in Saint-Denis, Réunion

Raymond Octave Joseph Barre (12 April 1924 – 25 August 2007) was a French centre-right politician and economist. He served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981. As a candidate for the presidency in 1988, he came in third and was eliminated in the first round. He was born in Saint-Denis, in the French island of Réunion, then still a colony (it became an overseas department in 1946).

Contents

Career

Professional life

After his education, Raymond Barre was professor of economics at Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

From 1959 to 1962, he was director of Jean-Marcel Jeanneney's staff, in the ministry of Industry and Trade. Then, in 1967, President Charles de Gaulle chose him as vice-president of the European Commission for Economic & Financial Affairs. He stayed in Brussels until January 1973, serving in the Rey, Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions. Having come back to France, he joined the cabinet as minister of the External Trade in January 1976.

Premiership

Seven months later, while mostly unknown at that time, President Giscard d'Estaing appointed him Prime minister and Minister of Economy and Finance. He presented him to the French people as "the best economist in France" (French: meilleur économiste de France). Under the Fifth Republic, he was the only person to hold these two offices at the same time. He left the ministry of Economy and Finance in 1978, but stayed as Prime minister until the defeat of Giscard d'Estaing at the 1981 presidential election.

At the head of the cabinet, he was faced with the conflict which divided the parliamentary majority between the "Giscardians" and the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) led by his predecessor Jacques Chirac. The right majority unexpectedly won the 1978 legislative election.

Barre was also confronted with an economic crisis. He advocated a strict policy to cut inflation and public spending, and the industrial "restructuring" ("Barre Plans"). In the face of trade union opposition, he did not use diplomatic language, mocking "the bearers of banners" (French: les porteurs de pancartes) and he exhorted "instead of grousing, you should work hard".

Post-premiership

After his departure from the head of the cabinet, he was elected deputy of Rhône département under the label of the Union for French Democracy (UDF). He held his parliamentary seat until 2002.

In the 1980s, he competed for the leadership of the right against Chirac. Believing that the "cohabitation" was incompatible with the "Fifth Republic", he let Chirac take the lead of the cabinet after the 1986 legislative election. He ran as UDF candidate for president in the 1988 election, but some components of his party supported covertly the other right-wing candidate, the Neo-Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. In this, in spite of positive polls at the beginning of the campaign, he came the third behind the two protagonists of the "cohabitation": the Socialist President François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac. For the secound round, he called his voters to transfer to the RPR candidate, who was finally defeated.

After the failure of his presidential candidacy, he focused on his local tenures, in Lyon. In 1995, the RPR Mayor of Lyon Michel Noir could not compete for another term in due to a judicial indictment, and consequently, Barre was the right-wing candidate to the mayoralty. He was elected but he did not run for a second term in 2001. One year later, he finsished his last parliamentary term in the French National Assembly and he retired from politics.

Raymond Barre was probably the only French politician to have reached such high levels of responsibilities without having ever been an official member or leader of any political party. He always kept some distance with what he considered to be the political "microcosm".

Raymond Barre died on 25 August 2007 at age 83 at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris,[1] where he was taken care for heart problems since his transfer from a hospital in Monaco on 11 April 2007[2].

Governmental functions

Prime minister : 1976-1981

Minister of Economy and Finance : 1976-1978

Minister of Foreign Trade : January-August 1976

Electoral mandates

Mayor of Lyon : 1995-2001

Member of the National Assembly of France for Rhône (department) : 1981-2002

Controversy

Raymond Barre standing next to Mother Tessa Bielecki and Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits during 1989 World Economic Forum.

On several occasions, Raymond Barre made remarks that were interpreted as antisemitic, or at least supportive of antisemitism. In 1980, when he was prime minister, a bombing was attempted against a synagogue in the rue Copernic, in Paris; however the bomb detonated in the street when the Jews attending shabbat were inside the synagogue, and not when they were out; but as a result some non-Jewish bystanders were killed. Raymond Barre then famously denounced:

"A hateful attack which wanted to strike at the Jews who were in that synagogue, and which [instead] struck innocent French people who were crossing the street."[3]

A controversy erupted because Raymond Barre's sentence seemed to imply that the Jews inside the synagogue were guilty of something, or were not French.

On 5 February 2005, Raymond Barre spoke about Bruno Gollnisch, one of the leaders of the controversial Front National party (widely considered to be far-right):

"Gollnisch is a likeable person, he gets sometimes carried away by outrageous speech, but he's a good person."[4]

Later, Barre was criticized for defending the collaborationist Maurice Papon at his trial. He issued the following statement to his accusers:

" I am and have always been on the side of the Holocaust's survivors to condemn barbary and its accomplices"[1]

Governments

Barre's First Government, 27 August 1976 - 30 March 1977

Barre's Second Government, 30 March 1977 - 5 April 1978

Changes

  • 26 September 1977 - Fernand Icart succeeds Fourcade as Minister of Equipment and Regional Planning.

Barre's Third Government, 5 April 1978 - 22 May 1981

Changes

  • 29 November 1978 - Jean François-Poncet succeeds Guiringaud as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
  • 4 July 1979 - Jacques Barrot succeeds Veil as Minister of Health and Social Security. Maurice Charretier succeeds Barrot as Minister of Commerce and Craft Industry.
  • 29 October 1979 - Jean Mattéoli succeeds Boulin as Minister of Labour and Participation.
  • 2 October 1980 - Joël Le Theule succeeds Bourges as Minister of Defense. Daniel Hoeffel succeeds Le Theule as Minister of Transport. Michel Cointat succeeds Deniau as Minister of External Commerce.
  • 22 December 1980 - Robert Galley succeeds Le Theule (d.14 December) as Minister of Defense.
  • 4 March 1981 - Michel d'Ornano succeeds Lecat as Minister of Culture. No one succeeds Lecat as Minister of Communication.

Retirement

Barre retired from active politics in June, 2002. He was being treated at a hospital for a heart condition since April, 2007 when he died on 25 August 2007. He was survived by his wife and two sons. [5]

References

  1. ^ BBC NEWS, French ex-PM Raymond Barre dies
  2. ^ LeMonde.fr with AFP, 11 April 2007
  3. ^ TF1, late evening news, 3 October 1980
  4. ^ France Info, Questions d'info, 5 February 2005
  5. ^ BBC NEWS | Europe | French ex-PM Raymond Barre dies

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
—		 Minister of External Commerce
1976		 Succeeded by
André Rossi
Preceded by
Jacques Chirac		 Prime Minister of France
1976–1981		 Succeeded by
Pierre Mauroy
Preceded by
Jean-Pierre-Fourcade		 Minister of the Economy and Finance
1976–1978		 Succeeded by
René Monory
Party political offices
Preceded by
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing		 Union for French Democracy Presidential candidate
1988 (lost)		 Succeeded by
François Bayrou (2002)
v • d • e
Candidates in the French presidential election, 1988
Winner Logo of the French Republic
Lost in runoff
Other candidates

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Learn More
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Louis de Guiringaud
Christian Beullac

What is gillian barres? Read answer...
What is Guillain-Barre? Read answer...
Who is Jenna Barr? Read answer...

Help us answer these
Who is tajai barrs?
What is epstein barr?
What ia a barre?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Political Biography. A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
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
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Raymond Barre".  Read more