Minister of Foreign Affairs
Michel Debré took which position in Nov 1968?
Michel Debré Michel Jean-Pierre Debré ( ; 15 January 1912 – 2 August 1996 ) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic . He is considered the father of the current Constitution of France . He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962 . In terms of political personality , he was intense and immovable , with a tendency to rhetorical extremism . Biography . Early years . Debré was born in Paris , the son of Jeanne-Marguerite ( Debat-Ponsan ) and Robert Debré , a well-known professor of medicine , who is today considered by many to be the founder of modern pediatrics . His maternal grandfather was academic painter Édouard Debat-Ponsan . Debrés father was Jewish , and his grandfather was a rabbi . Debré himself was Roman Catholic . He studied at the Lycée Montaigne and then at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand , obtained a diploma from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques , and a PhD in Law from the University of Paris . He then became a Professor of Law at the University of Paris . He also joined the École des Officiers de Réserve de la Cavalerie ( Reserve Cavalry-Officers School ) in Saumur . In 1934 , at the age of twenty-two , Debré passed the entrance exam and became a member of the Conseil dÉtat . In 1938 , he joined the staff of the Economy Minister Paul Reynaud . Career . In 1939 , at the beginning of the Second World War , Debré was enlisted as a cavalry officer . He was taken prisoner in Artenay in June 1940 during the Battle of France but managed to escape in September of that year . He returned to the Conseil dÉtat , now under the administration of the Vichy regime , and was sworn in by Marshal Philippe Pétain . In 1942 he was promoted to maître des requêtes by the Minister of Justice . After the German invasion of the free zone in November 1942 , Debrés political pétainisme disappeared , and in February 1943 he became involved in the French Resistance , joining the network Ceux de la Résistance ( CDLR ) . During the summer of 1943 , General Charles de Gaulle gave Debré the task of making a list of prefects , or State representatives , who would replace those of the Vichy regime after the liberation . In August 1944 de Gaulle made him Commissaire de la République for Angers , and in 1945 , the Provisional Government charged him with the task of reforming the French Civil Service . Debré created the École nationale dadministration , whose idea was formulated by Jean Zay before the war . Under the Fourth Republic , Michel Debré at first supported the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance , but defected to the Radical-Socialist Party on the advice of General Charles de Gaulle , who reportedly told him and several other politicians , including Jacques Chaban-Delmas,Allez au parti radical . Cest là que vous trouverez les derniers vestiges du sens de lEtat – Go to the radical party . It is there that you will find the last vestiges of the meaning of the state . He then joined the Rally of the French People and was elected senator of Indre-et-Loire , a position he held from 1948 to 1958 . In 1957 , he founded Le Courrier de la colère , a newspaper that fiercely defended French Algeria and called for the return to power of de Gaulle . In the 2 December 1957 issue , Debré wrote : This explicit appeal to the insurgency led the socialist politician Alain Savary to write that In the case of the OAS insurgency , the soldiers are not the culprit ; the culprit is Debré . Family . Michel Debré had four sons : Vincent Debré ( 1939– ) , businessman ; François Debré ( 1942–2020 ) , journalist ; Bernard Debré ( 1944–2020 ) , urologist and politician ; and his fraternal twin , Jean-Louis Debré , politician . See Debré family . Government . Michel Debré became the Garde des Sceaux ( Minister of Justice ) in the cabinet of General de Gaulle on 1 June 1958 . He played an important role in drafting the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and on its acceptance he took up the new position of Prime Minister of France , which he held from 8 January 1959 to 1962 . After the 1962 Évian Accords referendum that ended the Algerian War and gave auto-determination to Algeria was approved by a nearly ten-to-one margin , de Gaulle replaced him with Georges Pompidou . In November , during the parliamentary elections that followed the dissolution of the National Assembly , he tried to be elected Député for Indre-et-Loire . Defeated , in March 1963 he decided to go to Réunion , an island he had visited for less than twenty-four hours on 10 July 1959 when on a trip with President de Gaulle . This choice reflects Debrés fear that what remained of the French colonial empires would follow the path trodden by Algeria – that of independence , towards which he was not sympathetic . Debré wanted to take action against the Communist Party of Réunion that had been founded by Paul Vergès a few years earlier . The movement sought self-determination for the island and the removal of its position as an overseas department , and had staged demonstrations on the island a few days earlier . He also noted that the invalidation of Gabriel Macés election as Mayor of Saint-Denis rendered the post open to the opposition , so he took the decision to win over this mandate . He returned in the government in 1966 as Economy and Finance Minister . After the May 1968 crisis , he became Foreign Minister , then , one year later , he served as Defence Minister of President Georges Pompidou . In that role , he became a hated figure of the left , because of his determination to expropriate the land of 107 peasant farmers and shepherds on the Larzac plateau , to extend an existing military base . The resulting civil disobedience campaign was ultimately victorious . Considered as a guardian of the Gaullist orthodoxy , he was marginalized after the election of Valéry Giscard dEstaing as President of France in 1974 . He criticized with virulence his foreign policy . In 1979 he took a major part in the Rally for the Republic ( RPR ) campaign against the European federalism and was elected member of the European Parliament in order to defend the principle of Europe of nations . But later , he accused Jacques Chirac and the RPR lead to moderate their speech , and so , he was a dissident candidate in the 1981 presidential election . He obtained only 1.6% of votes . Politics in Réunion . Michel Debré arrived on the island of Réunion in April 1963 , and succeeded in being elected Député for Saint-Denis on 6 May despite local opposition to the Ordonnance Debré law he had introduced in 1960 , that allowed civil servants in the overseas departments and territories of France to be recalled to Metropolitan France if suspected of disturbing public order . Supported by those who rejected autonomy , he immediately became the leader of the local right-wing . This state of affairs would be challenged by Pierre Lagourgue that during the next decade . To justify the departmentalization of the island that occurred in 1946 and to preserve its inhabitants from the temptation of independence , Debré implemented an economic development policy , and opened the islands first family planning center . He personally fought to get Paris to create a second high school on the south of the island , in Le Tampon , when at the time there was only one , the Lycée Leconte-de-Lisle , that catered for many thousands of inhabitants . For a period of around two decades in the twentieth century ( 1968–1982 ) , 1,630 children from Réunion were relocated to France , particularly to Creuse . These children , known as , were brought to light in 2002 when Réunion exile Jean-Jacques Martial made a legal complaint against politician Michel Debré ( who organized the controversial displacement ) for kidnapping of a minor , roundup and deportation . In 2005 , a similar case was brought against the French Government by the Association of Réunion of Creuse . Political career . Governmental functions - Keeper of the Seals , Minister of Justice : 1958–1959 . - Prime Minister : 1959–1962 . - Minister of Economy and Finance : 1966–1968 . - Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1968–1969 . - Minister of Defense : 1969–1973 . Electoral mandates European Parliament - Member of European Parliament : 1979–1980 ( Resignation ) . Elected in 1979 . Senate of France - Senator of Indre-et-Loire : 1948–1959 Became Prime minister in 1959 . Elected in 1948 , reelected in 1954 . National Assembly - Member of the National Assembly of France for Réunion : 1963–1966 ( Became minister in 1966 ) , 1973–1988 . Elected in 1963 , reelected in 1967 , 1968 , 1973 , 1978 , 1981 , 1986 . General Council - General councillor of Indre-et-Loire : 1951–1970 . Reelected in 1958 , 1964 . Municipal Council - Mayor of Amboise : 1966–1989 . Reelected in 1971 , 1977 , 1983 . - Municipal councillor of Amboise : 1959–1989 . Reelected in 1965 , 1971 , 1977 , 1983 . Debrés Government , 8 January 1959 – 15 April 1962 . - Michel Debré – Prime Minister - Maurice Couve de Murville – Minister of Foreign Affairs - Pierre Guillaumat – Minister of Armies - Jean Berthoin – Minister of the Interior - Antoine Pinay – Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs - Jean-Marcel Jeanneney – Minister of Commerce and Industry - Paul Bacon – Minister of Labour - Edmond Michelet – Minister of Justice - André Boulloche – Minister of National Education - Raymond Triboulet – Minister of Veteran Affairs - André Malraux – Minister of Cultural Affairs - Roger Houdet – Minister of Agriculture - Robert Buron – Minister of Public Works and Transport - Bernard Chenot – Minister of Public Health and Population - Bernard Cornut-Gentille – Minister of Posts and Telecommunications - Roger Frey – Minister of Information - Pierre Sudreau – Minister of Construction Changes - 27 March 1959 – Robert Lecourt enters the Cabinet as Minister of Cooperation . - 27 May 1959 – Henri Rochereau succeeds Houdet as Minister of Agriculture . - 28 May 1959 – Pierre Chatenet succeeds Berthoin as Minister of the Interior . - 23 December 1959 – Debré succeeds Boulloche as interim Minister of National Education . - 13 January 1960 – Wilfrid Baumgartner succeeds Pinay as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs . - 15 January 1960 – Louis Joxe succeeds Debré as Minister of National Education - 5 February 1960 – Pierre Messmer succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of Armies . Robert Lecourt becomes Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and of the Sahara . His previous office of Minister of Cooperation is abolished . Michel Maurice-Bokanowski succeeds Cornut-Gentille as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications . Louis Terrenoire succeeds Frey as Minister of Information . - 23 November 1960 – Louis Joxe becomes Minister of Algerian Affairs . Pierre Guillaumat succeeds Joxe as interim Minister of National Education . - 20 February 1961 – Lucien Paye succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of National Education . - 6 May 1961 – Roger Frey succeeds Chatenet as Minister of the Interior . - 18 May 1961 – Jean Foyer enters the ministry as Minister of Cooperation . - 24 August 1961 – Bernard Chenot succeeds Michelet as Minister of Justice . Joseph Fontanet succeeds Chenot as Minister of Public Health and Population . Edgard Pisani succeeds Rochereau as Minister of Agriculture . Louis Jacquinot succeeds Lecourt as Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and Sahara . Terrenoire ceases to be Minister of Information , and the office is abolished . - 19 January 1962 – Valéry Giscard dEstaing succeeds Baumgartner as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs . Further reading . - Wahl , Nicholas . The Constitutional Ideas of Michel Debré . Theory and Politics/Theorie und Politik . Springer Netherlands , 1971 . 259–271 . - Wilsford , David , ed . Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe : a biographical dictionary ( Greenwood , 1995 ) pp . 97–105 Primary sources . - Debré , Michel . The principles of our defence policy : Revue de Défense Nationale ( Paris ) 26 année August/September 1970 . Survival 12#11 ( 1970 ) : 376–383 .