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Michel Debré

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Michel Jean-Pierre Debré[1] (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl dəbʁe]; 15 January 1912 – 2 August 1996) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962. In terms of political personality, Debré was intense and immovable and had a tendency to rhetorical extremism.[2]

His Excellency
Michel Debré
Debré in 1960
Prime Minister of France
In office
8 January 1959 – 14 April 1962
PresidentCharles de Gaulle
Preceded byCharles de Gaulle
Succeeded byGeorges Pompidou
Minister of Defence
In office
22 June 1969 – 5 April 1973
Prime MinisterJacques Chaban-Delmas
Pierre Messmer
Preceded byPierre Messmer
Succeeded byRobert Galley
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
31 May 1968 – 16 June 1969
Prime MinisterGeorges Pompidou
Maurice Couve de Murville
Preceded byMaurice Couve de Murville
Succeeded byMaurice Schumann
Minister of the Economy and Finance
In office
8 January 1966 – 31 May 1968
Prime MinisterGeorges Pompidou
Preceded byValéry Giscard d'Estaing
Succeeded byMaurice Couve de Murville
Member of the National Assembly
In office
26 November 1962 – 14 May 1988
ConstituencyRéunion
Personal details
Born
Michel Jean-Pierre Debré

(1912-01-15)15 January 1912
Paris, France
Died2 August 1996(1996-08-02) (aged 84)
Montlouis-sur-Loire, Indre-et-Loire, France
Political partyRadical-Socialist Party
(1934–1947)
Rally of the French People
(1947–1955)
Union for the New Republic
(1958–1968)
Union of Democrats for the Republic
(1968–1976)
Rally for the Republic
(1976–1988)
Spouse
Anne-Marie Lemaresquier
​
​
(m. 1936)​
ChildrenVincent (b. 1939)
François (b. 1942)
Bernard (b. 1944)
Jean-Louis (b. 1944)
Alma materÉcole Libre des Sciences Politiques
University of Paris
OccupationLawyer
Awards Legion of Honour
War Cross
Signature
WebsiteGovernment profile site
Military service
Allegiance Vichy France
 Free France
Branch/service French Army
Years of service1939–1945
RankCommissioner of the Republic
Lieutenant
UnitFrench Cavalry
Battles/warsWorld War II
:

Early life

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Debré was born in Paris, the son of Jeanne-Marguerite (Debat-Ponsan) and Robert Debré, a well-known professor of medicine, who is today considered by many to be the founder of modern pediatrics. His maternal grandfather was academic painter Édouard Debat-Ponsan. Debré's father was Jewish, and his grandfather was a rabbi.[3][4] Debré himself was Roman Catholic.[1][3]

He studied at the Lycée Montaigne and then at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, obtained a diploma from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and a PhD in Law from the University of Paris. He then became a Professor of Law at the University of Paris. He also joined the École des Officiers de Réserve de la Cavalerie (Reserve Cavalry-Officers School) in Saumur. In 1934, at the age of twenty-two, Debré passed the entrance exam and became a member of the Conseil d'État. In 1938, he joined the staff of the Economy Minister Paul Reynaud.

Early career

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In 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, Debré was enlisted as a cavalry officer. He was taken prisoner in Artenay in June 1940 during the Battle of France but managed to escape in September. He returned to the Conseil d'État, now under the administration of the Vichy regime and was sworn in by Marshal Philippe Pétain. In 1942, he was promoted to maître des requêtes by the Minister of Justice. After the German invasion of the free zone in November 1942, Debré's political Pétainism disappeared, and in February 1943, he became involved in the French Resistance by joining the network Ceux de la Résistance (CDLR).

During the summer of 1943, General Charles de Gaulle gave Debré the task of making a list of prefects who would replace those of the Vichy regime after the Liberation. In August 1944, de Gaulle made him Commissaire de la République for Angers, and in 1945, the Provisional Government charged him with the task of reforming the French Civil Service. While doing so, he created the École nationale d'administration, a decision rooted in ideas formulated by Jean Zay before the war.

Under the Fourth Republic, Debré at first supported the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance but defected to the Radical-Socialist Party on the alleged advice de Gaulle, who reportedly told him and several other politicians, including Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Allez au parti radical. C'est là que vous trouverez les derniers vestiges du sens de l'Etat. ("Go to the Radical Party. It's there that you will find the last vestiges of the meaning of the state".)[5]

Debré then joined the Rally of the French People and was elected senator of Indre-et-Loire, a position that he held from 1948 to 1958. In 1957, he founded Le Courrier de la colère, a newspaper that fiercely defended French Algeria and called for the return to power of de Gaulle. In the 2 December 1957 issue, Debré wrote:

"As long as Algeria is French land, as long as the law of Algeria is French, the battle for Algeria is a legal battle, the insurgency for Algeria is a legal insurgency.

The explicit appeal to the insurgency led the socialist politician Alain Savary to write, "In the case of the OAS insurgency, the soldiers are not the culprit; the culprit is Debré".[6]

Family

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Michel Debré had four sons: Vincent Debré (1939–), businessman; François Debré (1942–2020), journalist; Bernard Debré (1944–2020), urologist and politician; and Bernard's fraternal twin, Jean-Louis Debré, politician. See Debré family.

Government

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Michel Debré with David Ben-Gurion at Hôtel Matignon, on the first official visit of the Israeli Prime Minister to Paris. June, 1960

Michel Debré became the Garde des Sceaux and Minister of Justice in the cabinet of General de Gaulle on 1 June 1958.[7] He played an important role in drafting the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and on its acceptance he took up the new position of Prime Minister of France, which he held from 8 January 1959[8] to 1962.

After the 1962 Évian Accords referendum that ended the Algerian War and gave self-determination to Algeria was approved by a nearly ten-to-one margin, de Gaulle replaced Debré with Georges Pompidou. In November, during the parliamentary elections that followed the dissolution of the National Assembly, Debré tried to be elected as deputy for Indre-et-Loire. Defeated, in March 1963 he decided to go to Réunion, an island that he had visited for less than 24 hours on 10 July 1959, on a trip with President de Gaulle. The choice reflects Debré's fear that what remained of the French colonial empires would follow the path trodden by Algeria: that of independence for which he was not sympathetic.

Debré wanted to take action against the Communist Party of Réunion, which had been founded by Paul Vergès a few years earlier. The movement sought self-determination for the island and the removal of its position as an overseas department and had staged demonstrations on the island a few days earlier. He also noted that the invalidation of Gabriel Macé's election as Mayor of Saint-Denis rendered the post open to the opposition and so he took the decision to contest the election.

Debré returned to the government in 1966 as Economy and Finance Minister. After the May 1968 crisis, he became Foreign Minister and, one year later, served as Defence Minister under President Georges Pompidou. In that role, he became a hated figure of the left because of his determination to expropriate the land of 107 peasant farmers and shepherds on the Larzac plateau to extend an existing military base. The resulting civil disobedience campaign was ultimately victorious.

Considered as a guardian of the Gaullist orthodoxy, Debré was marginalised after the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as President of France in 1974, whose foreign policy Debré criticised with virulence. In 1979, Debré took a major part in the Rally for the Republic (RPR) campaign against European federalism and was elected member of the European Parliament to defend the principle of the Europe of nations. However, Debré later accused Jacques Chirac, and the RPR moderated their speech. Debré was a dissident candidate in the 1981 presidential election but obtained only 1.6% of votes.

Politics in Réunion

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Michel Debré arrived on the island of Réunion in April 1963 and succeeded in being elected Député for Saint-Denis on 6 May despite local opposition to the ordonnance Debré, a law that he had introduced in 1960 to allow civil servants in the overseas departments and territories of France to be recalled to Metropolitan France if they were suspected of disturbing public order.[9] Supported by those who rejected autonomy, he immediately became the leader of the local right wing. That state of affairs would be challenged by Pierre Lagourgue during the next decade.

To justify the departmentalization of the island that occurred in 1946 and to preserve its inhabitants from the temptation of independence, Debré implemented an economic development policy and opened the island's first family planning center. He personally fought to get Paris to create a second secondary school on the south of the island, in Le Tampon, when at the time there was only one, the Lycée Leconte-de-Lisle, which catered for many thousands of inhabitants.[citation needed]

From 1968 to 1982, Debré forcibly relocated over 2,000 children from Réunion to France, to work as free labour in Creuse. The plight of those children, known as the Children of Creuse, was brought to light in 2002 when the Réunion exile Jean-Jacques Martial made a legal complaint against Debré, who had organised the controversial displacement, for "kidnapping of a minor, roundup and deportation".[10] In 2005, a similar case was brought against the French Government by the Association of Réunion of Creuse.[11]

Political career

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Governmental functions

  • Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice: 1958–1959.
  • Prime Minister: 1959–1962.
  • Minister of Economy and Finance: 1966–1968.
  • Minister of Foreign Affairs: 1968–1969.
  • Minister of Defense: 1969–1973.

Electoral mandates

European Parliament

Senate of France

  • Senator of Indre-et-Loire: 1948–1959 Became Prime minister in 1959. Elected in 1948, reelected in 1954.

National Assembly

General Council

  • General councillor of Indre-et-Loire: 1951–1970. Reelected in 1958, 1964.

Municipal Council

  • Mayor of Amboise: 1966–1989. Reelected in 1971, 1977, 1983.
  • Municipal councillor of Amboise: 1959–1989. Reelected in 1965, 1971, 1977, 1983.

Debré's Government, 8 January 1959 – 14 April 1962

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Changes

  • 27 March 1959 – Robert Lecourt enters the Cabinet as Minister of Cooperation.
  • 27 May 1959 – Henri Rochereau succeeds Houdet as Minister of Agriculture.
  • 28 May 1959 – Pierre Chatenet succeeds Berthoin as Minister of the Interior.
  • 23 December 1959 – Debré succeeds Boulloche as interim Minister of National Education.
  • 13 January 1960 – Wilfrid Baumgartner succeeds Pinay as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.
  • 15 January 1960 – Louis Joxe succeeds Debré as Minister of National Education
  • 5 February 1960 – Pierre Messmer succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of Armies. Robert Lecourt becomes Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and of the Sahara. His previous office of Minister of Cooperation is abolished. Michel Maurice-Bokanowski succeeds Cornut-Gentille as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Louis Terrenoire succeeds Frey as Minister of Information.
  • 23 November 1960 – Louis Joxe becomes Minister of Algerian Affairs. Pierre Guillaumat succeeds Joxe as interim Minister of National Education.
  • 20 February 1961 – Lucien Paye succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of National Education.
  • 6 May 1961 – Roger Frey succeeds Chatenet as Minister of the Interior.
  • 18 May 1961 – Jean Foyer enters the ministry as Minister of Cooperation.
  • 24 August 1961 – Bernard Chenot succeeds Michelet as Minister of Justice. Joseph Fontanet succeeds Chenot as Minister of Public Health and Population. Edgard Pisani succeeds Rochereau as Minister of Agriculture. Louis Jacquinot succeeds Lecourt as Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and Sahara. Terrenoire ceases to be Minister of Information, and the office is abolished.
  • 19 January 1962 – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing succeeds Baumgartner as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nytimes.com". The New York Times. 10 January 1966. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  2. ^ David Wilsford, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 97–105
  3. ^ a b Poliakov, Léon (1960). "FRANCE". American Jewish Year Book. 61: 204. JSTOR 23605151.
  4. ^ "Index-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, United States Army: Authors and subjects". 1972.
  5. ^ ladepeche.fr. "Radical Party" (in French). Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2007.
  6. ^ de-gaulle.info. "La Cendre Et La Braise" (in French). Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2007.
  7. ^ "Décret du 1er juin 1958 portant nomination des membres du gouvernement". Archived from the original on 7 December 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  8. ^ Décret du 8 janvier 1959 Archived 14 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine portant nomination du Premier ministre, Journal Officiel de la République Française, 9 January 1959
  9. ^ Ordonnance n°60-1101 du 15 octobre 1960 Archived 14 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine relative au rappel d'office par le ministre dont ils dépendant des fonctionnaires de l'État en service dans les DOM dont le comportement est de nature à troubler l'ordre public
  10. ^ Jean-Jacques Martial (2003). Une enfance volée. Les Quatre Chemins. p. 113. ISBN 978-2-84784-110-7. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  11. ^ Châtain, Georges (18 August 2005). "Les Réunionnais de la Creuse veulent faire reconnaître leur " déportation " en métropole "". Le Monde. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2012.

Further reading

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Wikisource has original works by or about:
Michel Debré
  • Wahl, Nicholas. "The Constitutional Ideas of Michel Debré." Theory and Politics/Theorie und Politik. Springer Netherlands, 1971. 259–271.
  • Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 97–105

Primary sources

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  • Debré, Michel. "The principles of our defence policy: Revue de Défense Nationale (Paris) 26 année August/September 1970." Survival 12#11 (1970): 376–383.
  • Debre, Michel (1986), "Michel Debre on French Population Policy", Population and Development Review, 12 (3): 606–608, doi:10.2307/1973241, JSTOR 1973241
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Justice
1958–1959 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of France
1959–1962 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Economy and Finance
1966–1968 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Foreign Affairs
1966–1969 		Succeeded by
Preceded byas Minister of the Armies Minister of National Defence
1969–1973 		Succeeded by
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