Edgar Faure

Edgar Jean Faure 18 August 1908 30 March 1988 was a French politician lawyer essayist historian and memoirist who served as Prime Minister of France in 1952 and again between 1955 and 1956 Prior to his election to the National Assembly for Jura under the Fourth Republic in 1946 he was a member of the French Committee of National Liberation CFLN in Algiers 19431944 A Radical Faure was married to writer Lucie Meyer In 1978 he was elected to the Académie Française Faure was born in Béziers Hérault to a French Army doctor He was nearsighted yet a brilliant student since his youth earning a baccalauréat at 15 as well as a law degree at 19 in Paris At 21 years of age he became a member of the bar association the youngest lawyer in France to do so at the time While living in Paris he became active in Third Republic politics he joined the Radical Party in 1929 During the German occupation of World War II he joined the French Resistance in the Maquis In 1942 he fled to Charles de Gaulles headquarters in Algiers where he was made head of the Provisional Government of the Republics legislative department At the end of the war he served as French counsel for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials In 1946 he was elected to the French Parliament as a Radical While the popularity of his party declined to less than 10 of the total vote none of the other parties was able to gain a clear majority Therefore early on his party often played a disproportionately important role in the formation of governments He thus led the cabinet in 1952 and from 1955 to 1956 Faure was a leader of the more conservative wing of the party opposing the partys left under Pierre Mendès France Faures views changed during the Fourth Republic after initial opposition to the Fifth Republic he voted against presidential election by universal suffrage in the 1962 referendum he eventually became a Gaullist The Gaullist Party the Union for the New Republic sent him on an unofficial mission to the Peoples Republic of China in 1963 In government he served in successive ministries Agriculture 19661968 National Education 19681969 where he was responsible for pushing through reform of the universities and Social Affairs 19721973 He declined to be a candidate at the 1974 presidential election in which he supported Valéry Giscard dEstaing against the Gaullist candidate Jacques ChabanDelmas He had the reputation of a careerist and the nickname of weathercock He replied with humour it is not the weathercock which turns it is the wind He was a member of the National Assembly for the Jura department from 1946 to 1958 as well as for the Doubs department from 1967 to 1980 He presided over the National Assembly from 1973 to 1978 He sought another term as President of the Assembly President in 1978 but was defeated by ChabanDelmas Faure was a Senator from 1959 to 1967 for Jura and again in 1980 for Doubs In 1978 he became a member of the Académie Française Source Article Edgar Faure from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30