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Raymond Barre |
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Raymond Barre
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| In office 26 August 1976 – 21 May 1981 |
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| President | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
| Preceded by | Jacques Chirac |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Mauroy |
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| In office 1995 – 2001 |
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| Preceded by | Michel Noir |
| Succeeded by | Gérard Collomb |
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| In office 1967-07-02 – 1973-01-05 |
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| Preceded by | Robert Marjolin |
| Succeeded by | Wilhelm Haferkamp |
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| Born | 12 April 1924 Saint-Denis, Réunion |
| Died | 25 August 2007 (aged 83) Paris |
| Political party | UDF |
| Profession | Economist |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
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 overseas department of Réunion.
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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 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.
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". 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".
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 "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, coming in third behind Socialist President François Mitterrand and Neo-Gaullist Prime Minister Chirac. From 1995 to 2001, he was mayor of Lyon. He did not run for a second term.
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 20072.
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 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):
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]
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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
| 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 |
| Preceded by Valery Giscard d'Estaing |
Union for French Democracy Presidential candidate 1988 (lost) |
Succeeded by François Bayrou (2002) |
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