Raymond Barre


Raymond Octave Joseph Barre was a French politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three presidents. He later served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981. As a candidate for the presidency in 1988, he came in third and was eliminated in the first round. He was born in Saint-Denis, on the French island of Réunion, and then still a colony.

Career

Professional life

After his education, Raymond Barre was a professor of economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris as well as École Centrale Paris.
From 1959 to 1962, he was director of Jean-Marcel Jeanneney's staff in the ministry of Industry and Trade. Then, in 1967, President Charles de Gaulle chose him as Vice-President of the European Commission for Economic & Financial Affairs. He stayed in Brussels until January 1973, serving in the Rey, Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions. Having come back to France, he joined the cabinet as minister of External Trade in January 1976.

Premiership

Seven months later, while mostly unknown at that time, President Giscard d'Estaing appointed him Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance. He presented him to the French people as "the best economist in France". Under the Fifth Republic, he was the only person to hold these two offices at the same time. He left the ministry of Economy and Finance in 1978 but stayed as Prime minister until the defeat of Giscard d'Estaing at the 1981 presidential election.
At the head of the cabinet, he was faced with the conflict which divided the parliamentary majority between the "Giscardians" and the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic led by his predecessor Jacques Chirac. The right majority unexpectedly won the 1978 legislative election.
Barre was primarily confronted with an economic crisis. He advocated numerous complex, strict policies. The first Barre plan emerged on 22 September 1976, with a priority to stop inflation. It included a 3-month price freeze; a reduction in the value-added tax; wage controls; salary controls; a reduction of the growth in the money supply; and increases in the income tax, automobile taxes, luxury taxes and bank rates. There were measures to restore the trade balance and support the growth of the economy and employment. Oil imports, whose price had shot up, were limited. There was special aid to exports, and an action fund was set up to aid industries. There was increased financial aid to farmers, who were suffering from a drought, and for social security. The package was not very popular but was pursued with vigour.
He did not use diplomatic language in the face of trade union opposition. Instead, he mocked "the bearers of banners" and he exhorted "instead of grousing, you should work hard".

Post-premiership

After he resigned as head of the cabinet, he was elected deputy of Rhône département under the label of the Union for French Democracy. However, he never formally joined the party. He held his parliamentary seat until 2002.
In the 1980s, he competed for the leadership of the right against Chirac. Believing that the "cohabitation" was incompatible with the "Fifth Republic", he let Chirac take the lead of the cabinet after the 1986 legislative election. He ran as UDF candidate for president in the 1988 election, but some components of his party covertly supported the other right-wing candidate, the Neo-Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. In this, in spite of positive polls at the beginning of the campaign, he came third behind the two protagonists of the "cohabitation": the Socialist President François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac. For the second round, he called his voters to transfer to the RPR candidate, who was finally defeated.
After his presidential candidacy failed, he focused on his local tenures in Lyon. In 1995, the RPR Mayor of Lyon, Michel Noir, could not compete for another term due to a judicial indictment, so Barre was the conservative candidate for the mayoralty. He was elected, but he did not run for a second term in 2001. One year later, he finished his last parliamentary term in the French National Assembly and retired from politics.
Raymond Barre was probably the only French politician to have reached such high levels of responsibility without having ever been an official member or leader of any political party. He always kept some distance from what he considered to be the political "microcosm".
Raymond Barre died on 25 August 2007 at age 83 at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris, where he was being treated for heart problems since his transfer from a hospital in Monaco on 11 April 2007.

Political career

Governmental functions
Prime minister: 1976–1981.
Minister of Economy and Finance: 1976–1978.
Minister of Foreign Trade: January–August 1976.
Electoral mandates
National Assembly of France
Member of the National Assembly of France for Rhône : 1981–2002. Elected in 1981, reelected in 1986, 1988, 1993, 1997.
Municipal Council
Mayor of Lyon : 1995–2001.
Municipal councillor of Lyon: 1995–2001.
Urban community Council
President of the Urban Community of Lyon: 1995–2001.
Member of the Urban Community of Lyon: 1995–2001.
Bilderberg Conference participant 1983

Allegations of antisemitism

On several occasions, Raymond Barre made remarks that were interpreted as antisemitic, or at least supportive of antisemitism. In 1980, when he was prime minister, a bombing was attempted against the Union Libérale Israélite de France, a synagogue in the rue Copernic, Paris; however the bomb detonated in the street when the Jews attending shabbat were inside the synagogue, and not when they were out; but as a result some non-Jewish bystanders were killed. Raymond Barre then famously denounced:
In 2007, Barre argued on a radio show that "the Jewish lobby" had orchestrated criticism regarding his 1980 remarks. On this same show, Barre defended the collaborationist Maurice Papon at his trial, describing him as "a scapegoat". Barre was criticized for these remarks.

Governments

Barre's First Government, 25 August 1976 – 30 March 1977

Changes
  • 26 September 1977 – Fernand Icart succeeds Fourcade as Minister of Equipment and Regional Planning.

    Barre's Third Government, 5 April 1978 – 21 May 1981

  • Raymond Barre – Prime Minister
  • Louis de Guiringaud – Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Yvon Bourges – Minister of Defense
  • Christian Bonnet – Minister of the Interior
  • René Monory – Minister of Economy
  • Maurice Papon – Minister of Budget
  • André Giraud – Minister of Industry
  • Robert Boulin – Minister of Labour and Participation
  • Alain Peyrefitte – Minister of Justice
  • Christian Beullac – Minister of Education
  • Alice Saunier-Seité – Minister of Universities
  • Jean-Philippe Lecat – Minister of Culture and Communication
  • Pierre Méhaignerie – Minister of Agriculture
  • Michel d'Ornano – Minister of Environment and Quality of Life
  • Jean-Pierre Soisson – Minister of Youth, Sports, and Leisure
  • Fernand Icart – Minister of Equipment and Regional Planning
  • Joël Le Theule – Minister of Transport
  • Simone Veil – Minister of Health and Family
  • Robert Galley – Minister of Cooperation
  • Jacques Barrot – Minister of Commerce and Craft Industry
  • Jean-François Deniau – Minister of External Commerce
Changes
  • 29 November 1978 – Jean François-Poncet succeeds Guiringaud as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
  • 4 July 1979 – Jacques Barrot succeeds Veil as Minister of Health and Social Security. Maurice Charretier succeeds Barrot as Minister of Commerce and Craft Industry.
  • 29 October 1979 – Jean Mattéoli succeeds Boulin as Minister of Labour and Participation.
  • 2 October 1980 – Joël Le Theule succeeds Bourges as Minister of Defense. Daniel Hoeffel succeeds Le Theule as Minister of Transport. Michel Cointat succeeds Deniau as Minister of External Commerce.
  • 22 December 1980 – Robert Galley succeeds Le Theule as Minister of Defense.
  • 4 March 1981 – Michel d'Ornano succeeds Lecat as Minister of Culture. No one succeeds Lecat as Minister of Communication.