Michel Jean-Pierre Debré (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.
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former Socialist Party First Secretary, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.
Due to family influences, Mitterrand started his political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy regime during its earlier years. Subsequently he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office several times under the Fourth Republic. Mitterrand opposed Charles de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a politically isolated figure, he outmanoeuvered rivals to become the left's standard bearer in the 1965 and 1974 presidential elections, before being elected president in the 1981 presidential election. He was re-elected in 1988 and remained in office until 1995.
Mitterrand invited the Communist Party into his first government, which was a controversial decision at the time. In the event, the Communists were boxed in as junior partners and, rather than taking advantage, saw their support erode. They left the cabinet in 1984. Early in his first term, he followed a radical left-wing economic agenda, including nationalisation of key firms and the introduction of the 39-hour work week, but after two years, with the economy in crisis, he somewhat reversed course. He instead pushed a socially liberal agenda with reforms such as the abolition of the death penalty, and the end of a government monopoly in radio and television broadcasting. He faced major controversy in 1985 after ordering the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace vessel docked in Auckland. Mitterrand’s foreign and defense policies built on those of his Gaullist predecessors, except as regards their reluctance to support European integration, which he reversed. His partnership with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl advanced European integration via the Maastricht Treaty, and he reluctantly accepted German reunification. During his time in office, he was a strong promoter of culture and implemented a range of costly "Grands Projets". He was the first French President to appoint a female Prime Minister, Édith Cresson, in 1991. Mitterrand was twice forced by the loss of a parliamentary majority into "cohabitation governments" with conservative cabinets led, respectively, by Jacques Chirac (1986–1988), and Édouard Balladur (1993–1995). Less than eight months after leaving office, he died from the prostate cancer he had successfully concealed for most of his presidency.
Beyond making the French Left electable, Mitterrand presided over the rise of the Socialist Party to dominance of the left, and the decline of the once-mighty Communist Party. (As a share of the popular vote in the first presidential round, the Communists shrank from a peak of 21.27% in 1969 to 8.66% in 1995, at the end of Mitterrand's second term.)
Martin Malvy (born 24 February 1936) is a French politician of the Socialist Party.In 1992, Malvy was the spokesmen of the French government. Between 1992 and 1993, he served as Minister of Budget. He later served as president of the Région Midi-Pyrénées between 1998 and 2015.
In the Socialist Party's 2011 primaries, Malvy endorsed Martine Aubry as the party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
Pierre Juquin (born 22 February 1930 in Clermont-Ferrand) is a French communist politician and trade unionist.
Georges Gorse (15 February 1915 – 17 March 2002) was a French politician and diplomat.
Born in Cahors, he qualified in 1939 as a professor at the University of Cairo. During World War II he joined Charles de Gaulle and the Free French as Director of Information, served on the Provisional Consultative Assembly.
After the war he was elected to represent the Vendée in the French National Assembly from 1946 to 1951, and then the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO) from 1951 onwards. In 1957, Guy Mollet made him an Ambassador to Algeria, then he was elected as Gaullist representative which he held from 1967 to 1997.During the events of May 1968, having attended a private political meeting as Minister of Information, he broke the news to the French media of de Gaulle's now notorious statement "reform yes, but 'chienlit, no".Gorse held a wide range of positions of state:
Under-secretary of State for Muslim Affairs 1946 to 1947
Under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1949 to 1950
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1961 to 1962
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1962
Minister for Co-operation, 1962
Ambassador to Algeria, 1963 to 1967
Minister of Labour, 1973 to 1974
Mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt, 1971 to 1991
Jacques Brunhes (7 October 1934 – 30 September 2020) was a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party, he served Hauts-de-Seine in the National Assembly from 1978 to 1986. Brunhes returned to the National Assembly in 1988, and served until 2001, when he was appointed Minister of Tourism. His tenure as government minister ended in 2002, and he was reelected a deputy until 2007.
Maurice Arreckx (13 December 1917 - 21 March 2001) was a French politician. He served as the mayor of Toulon from 1959 to 1985. He served as a member of the National Assembly from 1978 to 1981, and again in 1986, before serving as a member of the French Senate from 1986 to 1995.
Michel Crépeau (30 October 1930, Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée – 30 March 1999, Paris) was a French centre-left politician.
Born in 1930, barrister, he joined the Radical Party. When it split in 1972, he founded the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG) which chosen the alliance with the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. Elected Mayor of La Rochelle in 1971, and Member of French National Assembly representing of Charente Maritime département in 1973, he kept these terms until his death in 1999.
MRG candidate in the 1981 presidential election, he obtained 2.2% of votes in the first round, then he called to vote for François Mitterrand in the second round. He became his Environment Minister from 1981 to 1983, then his Trade and Craft Industry Minister from 1983 to 1986. When Robert Badinter was nominated President of the Constitutional Council, in February 1986, he succeeded him as Justice Minister but the Left lost the legislative election one month later and, consequently, he was forced to resign.
Michel Crépeau died in Paris on 30 March 1999, after a heart attack which had arisen few days earlier during a parliamentary session of the National Assembly.
Jacques Baumel (French pronunciation: [ʒak bomɛl]; 6 March 1918 – 17 February 2006) was a French politician. He was born on 6 March 1918 in Marseille and died on 17 February 2006 in Rueil-Malmaison. He was a French Resistance fighter (under the aliases "Saint-Just", "Berneix" or "Rossini"), deputy in the National Assembly, a senator, an important leader of the Gaullist movement, and secretary of state and mayor of Rueil-Malmaison.
Jean Auroux (born 19 September 1942 in Thizy, Rhône) is a French politician. He served as Minister of Labour from 1981 to 1983, under former President François Mitterrand.He started his career as a school teacher, and became the Mayor of Roanne. In 2002, he was sued for corruption in his capacity as Mayor, but he was let go in 2011.