Jean-Michel Boucheron (born 15 December 1946 in Angoulême, Charente) is a French politician, formerly a member of the National Assembly of France (1978-1988 mayor of Angoulême and briefly Secretary of State for Local Authorities. He represented Charente's 4th constituency in the Assembly, and is a member of the Socialist Party.
André Rossinot (born 22 May 1939) is a French politician. He is a medical doctor specialist in Otolaryngology. He is a member of the Radical Party.
François Gérard Marie Léotard (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ʒeʁaʁ maʁi leɔtaʁ]; 26 March 1942 – 25 April 2023) was a French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard was his brother.
A member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he appeared in the foreground of the political scene in the 1980s. He led a new generation of right-wing politicians, the "renovationmen", who opposed the old right-wing leaders Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation. His political career started with being elected as the mayor of Fréjus in 1977. He served two terms as the deputy of Var.As culture minister from 1986 to 1988, he sold the main public TV channel TF1. He returned to the French cabinet as defense minister, from 1993 to 1995. Supporting the candidacy of Edouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election, he was dismissed after Chirac's election. Elected president of the UDF in 1996, he could not prevent the split of this confederation two years later with Alain Madelin's secession. This and the party's poor showing in the 1998 regional elections prompted his resignation. After a mission in Macedonia in 2001 as representative of the European Union, he retired from politics. In 2003, he created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle East. He later authored several books.
Léotard died in Fréjus on 25 April 2023, at age 81.
Bernard Pons (18 July 1926 – 27 April 2022) was a French politician and medical doctor who was a member of the Union of Democrats for the Republic from 1971 to 1976 and a member of the Rally for the Republic party thereafter. He served as Secretary General of Rally for the Republic, Minister for Transport, and continued as a special advisor to the Union for a Popular Movement until 2008 after his retirement from active politics in 2002.
Jean Royer (31 October 1920 – 25 March 2011) was a French catholic and conservative politician, former Minister, and former Mayor of Tours.
Philippe Marchand (French pronunciation: [filip maʁʃɑ̃]; 1 September 1939 – 10 January 2018) was a French politician. He was Minister of the Interior from 1991 until 1992, a member of the Parliament and President of the general council of Charente-Maritime.
Eugène Charles Hernu (3 July 1923 – 17 January 1990) was a French socialist politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.
Edmond Hervé (born 3 December 1942) is a French politician, a member of the Socialist Party and French senator from 2008 to 2014. He was the mayor of Rennes from 1977 to 2008, succeeding Henri Fréville.
Philippe Séguin (21 April 1943 – 7 January 2010) was a French political figure who was President of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1997 and President of the Cour des Comptes of France from 2004 to 2010.
He entered the Court of Financial Auditors in 1970, but he began a political career in the Neo-Gaullist party RPR. In 1978, he was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for the Vosges département. He was Mayor of Épinal between 1983 and 1997.
Representing the social tradition of the Gaullism, he was Minister of Social Affairs in Jacques Chirac's cabinet, from 1986 to 1988.
After Chirac's defeat at the 1988 presidential election, he allied with Charles Pasqua and criticized the abandonment of Gaullist doctrine by the RPR executive. He accused Alain Juppé and Édouard Balladur of wanting an alignment on liberal and pro-European policies.
In 1992, he played a leading role in the No campaign against the Maastricht Treaty. On the eve of the vote he opposed President François Mitterrand in a televised debate.
As president of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1997, he supported the winning candidacy of Jacques Chirac at the 1995 presidential election. He inspired the theme of Chirac's campaign which was named "the social fracture".
Their relations deteriorated when he took the lead of the RPR, after the right-wing defeat at the 1997 legislative election. He failed to change the name of the party to "The Rally". He criticized the ascendancy of President Chirac within the party, refusing to be the leader of a "Chirac's fan-club". He resigned in 1999 just before the European elections, leaving his deputy Nicolas Sarkozy in charge.
As the RPR's official candidate, he lost the 2001 mayoral election in Paris. Refusing the merger of the Neo-Gaullist party with the right-wing classical forces in the Union for a Popular Movement, he quit politics in 2002.
He died at the age of 66 on 7 January 2010 from a heart attack.
Gisèle Halimi (born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) was a Tunisian-French lawyer, politician, essayist and feminist activist.