biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1924– )
|
| biography:
| French statesman and prime minister (1976–81), born in St-Denis, Réunion. He made his reputation as an influential neo-liberal economist at the Sorbonne and as vice-president of the European Commission (1967–72). He was minister of foreign trade under President Giscard d'Estaing, and was appointed prime minister after the resignation of Jacques Chirac. During the 1980s he built up a firm political base in the Lyon region, representing the centre–right Union for French Democracy. He contested the 1988 presidential election, but was eliminated in the first ballot. In 1995 he was elected mayor of Lyon. |
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