Michel Rocard (born 23
August 1930) is a French
politician, member of the Socialist
Party
(PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to
1991, during which he created the Revenu minimum d'insertion
(RMI), a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and led the
Matignon Accords
regarding the status of New Caledonia
. He is currently a member of the European
Parliament
, and has been strongly involved in European
policies. As of August 2007, he has accepted a mission in a
Commission under the authority of
Sarkozy's
Minister of Education,
Xavier Darcos.
Career
He was
born at Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine
) in a Protestant
family, son of the nuclear physicist
Yves Rocard, and entered politics as a
student leader whilst studying at the Paris Institute
of Political Studies
(aka Sciences-Po). He became Chair of the
French Socialist Students (linked to the French Section of
the Workers' International (SFIO) socialist party), and studied
at the Ecole Nationale
d'Administration
(ENA). A
finance inspector (senior official)
and anti-
colonialist, he
went to
Algeria and wrote a
report regarding the widely ignored
refugee
camps of the
Algerian War (1954-62).
This report was leaked to the newspapers
Le
Monde and
France
Observateur in April 1959, almost costing Rocard his
job.
Having left the SFIO because of
Guy
Mollet's position towards the Algerian war, he led the
dissident
Unified
Socialist Party (PSU) from 1967 to 1974. He took a part during
the
May 68 in France crisis,
supporting the
auto-gestionary project. He ran in
the
1969 presidential
election but obtained only 3,6% of votes.
Some months later, he
was elected deputy of the Yvelines
département, defeating the
former Prime minister Maurice
Couve de Murville. He lost his parliamentary seat in
1973, but retook it in 1978.
In 1973-74, he participated in the
LIP
conflict, selling watches with the workers and participating,
behind the scenes, in the attempts to find an employer who would
take back the factory, which was on the verge of being liquidated
.
In 1974,
he joined François
Mitterrand and the renewed Socialist Party (PS), which had replaced the old SFIO. Most
of the PSU members and a part of the
French and Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT)
trade union — generally known in France as the
non-
Marxist, "
Second Left" — followed him.
Elected mayor of
Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 1977,
he led the opposition to Mitterrand inside the Socialist Party (as
a candidate of the right-wing of the party). After the defeat of
the left at the
1978
legislative election, he tried to take over the leadership of
the party. In spite of his alliance with
Pierre Mauroy, the number 2 of the PS, he lost
the
Metz Congress (1979). Being the
most popular of the Socialist politicians (included Mitterrand
himself), he announced that he would run for president but his
"Call of Conflans" did not result in majority support within the
PS, and he withdrew his candidacy. Mitterrand was the Socialist
winning candidate for the
1981 presidency.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Michel Rocard's group inside the
Socialist Party, known as "
les rocardiens", advocated a
re-alignment of French socialism through a clearer acceptance of
the
market economy, more
decentralisation and less
state control. It was largely influenced by
Scandinavian social democracy, and stood in opposition
to Mitterrand's initial agenda of
nationalization, programmed in the
110 Propositions for
France. Nonetheless, the "
rocardiens" always
remained a minority.
From the 1980s to today
Under Mitterrand's first presidency, he was
Minister of
Territorial Development and
Minister of Planning from 1981
to 1983 and
Minister of
Agriculture from 1983 to 1985. He resigned from the cabinet in
due to his opposition to the introduction of the
proportional system for the
legislative elections. He hoped, in vain, that Mitterrand would not
run for his re-election in order to be the PS candidate at the
1988 presidential
election.
After Mitterrand's re-election, he was chosen as Prime Minister
(May 1988 - May 1991). Indeed, Rocard was popular and his position,
in the right-wing of the PS, corresponded with the slogan of the
electoral campaign, "a United France". He formed a cabinet
including 4 center-right ministers.
As Prime Minister, he led the Matignon Accords regarding the
status of New
Caledonia, which ended
the troubles in this overseas territory. His record in
office also include a decrease in unemployment and a large-scale
reform of the welfare state's financing system. He created a
minimum living wage revenue, the
RMI. Michel Rocard's poor
relations with François Mitterrand, notably during his mandate as
Prime Minister, were notorious. Besides, he was supported by a
relative parliamentary majority.
In 1991, when his popularity decreased, President Mitterrand forced
him to resign. However, according to Mauroy, who led the party,
Rocard stood as the "natural candidate" for the following
presidential elections. After the
1993 electoral disaster,
he became head of the PS by advocating a political "big-bang", that
was to say a questioning of the right/left rift. His speech did not
have the desired effect.
In 1992 he was appointed an honorary Companion of the
Order of Australia (AC), Australia's
highest civilian honour, "for eminent service to Australian/French
relations and the preservation of the Antarctic environment".
Rocard stood as leader of the Socialist Party during only one year,
in part because of the PS's complete defeat during the
1994 European elections.
The defeat was in part due to the success of the list of the
Left Radicals Movement, which was
covertly supported by President Mitterrand . Consequently, he was
toppled by the left-wing of the party and lost his last chance to
run for president the next year.
Having lost his deputy's seat in 1993, he became Senator of
Yvelines from 1995 to 1997. His supporters within the Socialist
Party became allies of candidate
Lionel
Jospin, who was Prime Minister in 1997-2002, and then
Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Since
1994, he has been a member of the European Parliament, and chaired the Committee on
Development and Cooperation (1997-1999), the Committee on
Employment and Social Affairs (1999-2002) and the Committee
on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport.
Michel Rocard is known for his hostility for
the proposed directives to allow
software patents in Europe, and has been an
outspoken opponent of what he considers to be sneaky manoeuvres to
force the decision on this issue . He has thus played an
instrumental role in causing the
rejection of the
recent directive seeking to enforce software patents on 6 July
2005.
On the French political scene, Rocard presented himself as the
political heir of
Pierre
Mendès-France, known for his moral rigour, and as the
politician who "speaks the truth". After Mitterrand's death, he
caused controversy when he said, about the former president, "he
was not an honest man". An impersonator mocked him for his problems
of elocution.
In the run up to the
presidential elections in
2007, Rocard called for an alliance between the Socialists and
the centrist
Union for French
Democracy (UDF) party of
François Bayrou in an effort to defeat
Union for a Popular
Movement (UMP) candidate
Nicolas
Sarkozy.
Ségolène
Royal, the PS candidate, rejected any such compromise,
lamenting that she was once again obliged to face obstacles from
within her own party. Rocard also publicly admitted, after the
election, having asked Ségolène Royal to step down in his favor in
March 2007, one month before the first round of voting .
Like other Socialist politicians, such as
Jack
Lang or
Hubert VĂ©drine, who
accepted similar positions, Rocard accepted a post on the Committee
on the re-evaluation of the teaching profession, which was placed
under the "high authority" of Sarkozy's
Minister of Education
Xavier Darcos . Criticized by
Medhi Ouraoui, national delegate of the PS,
Rocard claimed it was a "democrat's duty" to participate in such
Commissions and that he was "not concerned" by the "game of the
President of the Republic [consisting of making of such left-wing
participations] political symbols" . He furthermore explained that
he had accepted to speak before the
Gracques' spring university (a group of senior
left-wing civil servants who advocated a centrist strategy) because
political parties were not suited any more to serious reflexion .
Finally, he again claimed that the (Marxist) SFIO had been created
in 1905 on a fundamental "ambiguity," that of which to accept
market economy or to reject it .
Michel is a member of
Collegium
International, an organisation of leaders with political,
scientific, and ethical expertise whose goal is to provide new
approaches in overcoming the obstacles in the way of a peaceful,
socially just and an economically sustainable world.
Political career
Governmental functions
Prime minister : 1988-1991
Minister of State, minister of Planning and Land Development :
1981-1983
Minister of Agriculture : 1983-1985
Electoral mandates
Member of
the National Assembly of
France for Yvelines : 1969-1973 / 1978-1981 (Became minister in 1981) /
1985-1988 (Became Prime minister in 1988) / 1991-1993
Senator of Yvelines : 1995-1997
Mayor of
Conflans-Sainte-Honorine :
1977-1994
Municipal councillor of
Conflans-Sainte-Honorine :
1994-2001
Member of
the European
Parliament : 1994-2009
Political functions
First
Secretary (leader) of the Socialist Party : 1993-1994
Rocard's Ministry, 12 May 1988–15 May 1991
Changes
- 22-23 June 1988 - Michel
Delebarre succeeds Mermaz as Minister of Transport and Le
Pensec as Minister of Sea. The office of Minister of Social Affairs
is abolished, but Claude Evin enters the
ministry as Minister of Solidarity, Health, and Social Protection.
Jean-Pierre Soisson succeeds
Delebarre as Minister of Employment, becoming also Minister of
Labour and Vocational Training. Louis Le
Pensec becomes Minister of Overseas Departments and
Territories. Jean-Marie-Rausch
succeeds Fauroux as Minister of External Commerce. Hubert Curien succeeds Jospin as Minister of
Research and Technology. Jospin remains Minister of National
Education and Sport. Michel Durafour
becomes Minister of Administrative Reforms as well as Minister of
Civil Service.
- 28 June 1988 - Jack Lang becomes Minister of Great Works and
Bicentenary in addition to being Minister of Culture and
Communication.
- 22 February 1989 - Michel
Delebarre succeeds Faure as Minister of Housing and Equipment,
remaining also Minister of Transport.
- 2 October 1990 - The office of Minister of European Affairs is
abolished. Henri Nallet succeeds
Arpaillange as Minister of Justice. Louis
Mermaz succeeds Nallet as Minister of Agriculture and Forests.
The office of Minister of Bicentenary is abolished. Jack Lang
remains minister of Culture, Communication and Great Works.
- 21 December 1990 - Michel
Delebarre becomes Minister of City. Louis Besson succeeds Delebarre as Minister of
Transport, Housing, Sea, and Equipment.
- 29 January 1991 - Pierre Joxe
succeeds Chevènement as Minister of Defense. Philippe Marchand succeeds Joxe as
Minister of the Interior.
Health
In June
2007, Rocard was admitted at Calcutta Medical Research Institute,
Kolkata
, India
where
doctors found he had a blood clot in the
brain and was operated. He was
discharged from the hospital on 10 July 2007..
Bibliography
- Michel Rocard, Rapport sur les camps de regroupement et
autres textes sur la guerre d'Algérie,
Editions Mille et une
nuits, 2003 (Report on regroupment camps and others texts on
the Algerian War)
- Michel Rocard, Le Coeur Ă l'ouvrage, Odile Jacob, 1987
- Michel Rocard, Entretiens, Paris, Flammarion, 2001
- Ch. Piaget, Lip, Postface
by Michel Rocard, Lutter Stock, 1973.
- Collective, Lip : affaire non classée, Postface by
Michel Rocard, Syros, 1975.
References
- "Ils voulaient un patron, pas une coopérative
ouvrière", Le
Monde, interview with Rocard, 20 March 2007
- It's an Honour: AC
- « Tout le monde se copie et c’est bien ainsi »,
Freescape, 30 June 2003
- L'ouverture politique Ă gauche se poursuit avec
Michel Rocard, Reuters, 29 August 2007 (13h22), mirrored by
Le Monde
- Victime d'une hémorragie cérébrale, Michel Rocard
se remet doucement, Le Monde, 3 July 2007
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