Jacques Chaban-Delmas (7
March 1915 in Paris
– 10
November 2000 in Paris) was a French
Gaullist politician. He served as
Prime Minister under
Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972.
In
addition, for almost half a century, he was Mayor of Bordeaux
(1947 to
1995) and a deputy for the Gironde
département.
Jacques Chaban-Delmas was born Jacques Delmas. In the
resistance underground, his final
nom de guerre was
Chaban; after
World War II, he formally changed his
name to
Chaban-Delmas.As a general of a
brigade in the resistance, he took part in the
Parisian insurrection of August
1944. He was the youngest French general since the
First Empire.
A member of the
Radical
Party, he finally joined the Gaullist
Rally of the French People (RPF), which
opposed the
Fourth Republic's
governments.
In 1947, he became mayor of Bordeaux, which was
for 48 years his electoral fief. As a member of the
National Assembly, he sat with the
RPF.
In 1953, when the RPF group split (and
Charles de Gaulle supposedly retired),
Chaban-Delmas became head of the
Union of Republicans for
Social Action and president of the
National Centre of Social
Republicans party. He "tied up" with center-left
parties and joined
Pierre
Mendès-France's cabinet one year later as Minister of Public
Works. He took part in the center-left coalition
Republican Front, winning of the
1956 legislative
election. He was notably
Defence Minister in 1957–1958.
His governmental participations during the Fourth Republic inspired
the distrust of de Gaulle and some Gaullists.
Following Gen. de Gaulle's return to power in 1958, Chaban-Delmas
agreed to the advent of the
French
Fifth Republic and the new Constitution. He took part in the
foundation of the
Union for the New
Republic (UNR) and was elected, against de Gaulle's will,
chairman of the
French National
Assembly. He kept this function until the end of de Gaulle's
presidency in 1969. Contrary to some Gaullists (
Jacques Soustelle...), he supported de
Gaulle's policy to end the
Algerian War of Independence.
During the 1959 UNR Congress, he was the first politician to evoke
a "reserved presidential domain" mainly composed of Defense and
Diplomacy. This interpretation of the Constitution of 1958 survived
today.
In 1969, when
Georges Pompidou
accedeed to the presidency, he chose M. Chaban-Delmas as Prime
minister, who had concluded that the
May 68
crisis was the consequence of a strained and conflicted
society. He tried to promote what he called "a new
society", based on
dialogue between the
social forces. He relaxed the government authority over
mass media. As a result, he was viewed as too
"
progressive" by the "
conservative" wing of the Gaullist movement. He
was suspected to "tie up" again with the center-left. Indeed, his
advisers who inspired the "new society" programme was considered as
close to the center-left (
Simon Nora and
Jacques Delors who will serve as
Finance Minister under
François
Mitterrand). Besides, a latent conflict opposed Chaban-Delmas
to President Pompidou and the presidential circle. They accused him
to weaken the presidency in aid of himself. The satiric paper
Le Canard
Enchaîné accused him of breaking the law through
tax evasion and in 1972, PM Chaban-Delmas
canvassed for a
vote of
confidence in the Assembly. This he did obtain, but the
President still managed to force his resignation.
Two years later, following the death in office of President
Pompidou, Chaban-Delmas ran for the presidency himself. He was
supported by the "lords of gaullism", but 43 personalities close to
the now defunct president, led by
Jacques
Chirac, published the
Call of the
43 in favour of the candidacy of
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Chaban-Delmas was defeated on the first ballot of the
French presidential election,
1974, winning only 15.10% of the vote. Chirac became President
Giscard d'Estaing's Prime Minister.
Chaban-Delmas stood in the Gaullist Party (
RPR) and, in spite of Chirac's
leadership, returned to the chair of the National Assembly (1978 -
1981). Due to his friendship with President
Mitterrand, his name was mentioned
as a possible Prime minister during the first "
cohabitation" (1986 - 1988), but
he instead became president of the National Assembly for the third
time and Chirac again became Premier.
Chaban-Delmas retired in 1995, towards the end of his eighth term
as
Mayor of Bordeaux.
Political career
Governmental functions
Prime minister : 1969-1972
Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism : June-August 1954
/ 1954-1955
Minister of Housing and Reconstruction : September-November
1954
Minister of State : 1956-1957
Minister of Defense and Armed forces : 1957-1958
Electoral mandates
President of the
National
Assembly of France : 1958-1969 / 1978-1981 / 1986-1988
Member of the
National
Assembly of France for
the Gironde 2nd : 1946-1969
(Became Prime minister in 1969) / 1972-1997
Mayor of
Bordeaux :
1947-1995
President
of the Regional Council of Aquitaine
: 1974-1979 / 1985-1988
President of the
Urban
Community of Bordeaux : 1967-1983 / 1983-1995
Vice-president of the
Urban
Community of Bordeaux : 1977-1983
M. Chaban-Delmas's Cabinet; 22 June 1969 6 July 1972
Posts and Telecommunications]] -
Robert
Galley
Changes
Trivia
Chaban-Delmas was a first class
athlete, playing tennis for
Racing Club de France before the war
and rugby for
CASG and
C.A. Bèglais
References
- Valéry
Giscard d'Estaing
(1965)
on 28 April
1945, ten days before the war ended in Europe (by that time he had
been a general in the French Army for
about a year!).
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