Presidents of the Senate (France)

Auguste Champetier de Ribes (French pronunciation: [oɡyst ʃɑ̃ptje də ʁib]; 30 July 1882 – 6 March 1947) was a French politician and jurist.
A devout Catholic, he was an early follower of Albert de Mun and social Christianity. Wounded in the First World War, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the Basses-Pyrénées as a Christian Democrat (PDP) from 1924 to 1934. He was Senator from 1934 to 1940. He served as a junior minister or minister in various governments led by André Tardieu, Édouard Daladier, Paul Reynaud, and Pierre Laval.
In 1940, he was among the 80 parliamentarians who refused to give Pétain full powers (see The Vichy 80) and served in the Combat resistance movement. An early supporter of Charles de Gaulle, he was named by the Provisional Government of the French Republic as the French representative during the Nuremberg Trials, during which he delivered the closing statement from the French Prosecution. Upon his return, he was elected President of the Council of the Republic (now known as the French Senate) by the benefit of age. He had tied Communist Georges Marrane, but was elected because he was older than Marrane. Two days later, he was the defeated MRP candidate in the 1947 French presidential election. His health prevented him from assuming his role as President of the Council and he died in office.

Jean-Pierre Bel (born 30 December 1951) is a French retired politician who served as President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014 (the sole non-right-wing in the Fifth Republic). From the Ariège department, Bel is a member of the Socialist Party; he was elected to the Senate in September 1998 and re-elected in September 2008. Bel was President of the Socialist Group in the Senate from 2004 to 2011.
Following the September 2008 Senate election, Bel was the Socialist candidate for the post of President of the Senate on 1 October 2008, but because the right held a majority of seats in the Senate, he was defeated by Gérard Larcher. In the vote, he received 134 votes against 173 votes for Larcher.The left won a Senate majority in the September 2011 Senate election, and Bel was elected as President of the Senate on 1 October 2011. He received 179 votes against 134 votes for the right's candidate, outgoing Senate President Larcher; a centrist, Valerie Letard, received 29 votes.