Didier Motchane (17 September 1931 – 29 October 2017) was a French politician who served as a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989.

Didier Motchane
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1979–1989
Personal details
Born(1931-09-17)17 September 1931
Paris
Died29 October 2017(2017-10-29) (aged 86)

He was born in Paris on 17 September 1931 to mathematician Léon Motchane. Didier Motchane later married actress and film director Dominique Cabrera.[1]

A balloon with the letters "PS" and a schematic right fist holding a rose. In the background, the Vendôme Column of Paris.
The logo of the fist with a rose in a 2012 demonstration.

Motchane cofounded the Centre d'études, de recherches et d'éducation socialiste [fr] in 1965, and was active in the Socialist Party and the Union of the Left. He is often credited with the fist and rose design used by socialist political organizations worldwide, which he claimed to have “invented” in his 2010 memoirs,[2] but the initiative is disputed between other party leaders of the time.[3][4]

He was a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989, representing the Socialist Party. He left the party in 1993 after a disagreement with François Mitterrand, and helped establish the Citizen and Republican Movement.[5]

Motchane died of cancer at the age of 86 on 29 October, 2017.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Didier Motchane est mort, l'inventeur du logo socialiste "le poing et la rose" avait 86 ans". Huffington Post (in French). 30 October 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  2. ^ Motchane, Didier (2010). Voyage imaginaire à travers les mots du siècle (in French). Paris: Fayard. pp. 254–255. ISBN 978-2213654539. Motchane himself writes invented in quotation marks, as in scare quotes.
  3. ^ Cépède, Frédéric (14 April 2020). "Histoire et mémoire : 1970-2020, le poing et la rose à 50 ans". Office universitaire de recherche socialiste (in French). Paris. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  4. ^ Cépède, Frédéric (September–December 2018). "« Le poing et la rose », un symbole devenu encombrant ? Retour sur la saga d'un logo (1970-2017)". Histoire@Politique (in French). 36. Paris. ISSN 1954-3670. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  5. ^ "Morre Didier Motchane, criador do símbolo socialista do punho e da rosa" (in Portuguese). Grupo Globo. 29 October 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  6. ^ Alemagna, Lilian (29 October 2017). "Disparition de Didier Motchane, figure déçue du PS". Liberation (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2017.