page_title: Maurice Papon
section_title: Company president and government minister
hierarchical_section_title: Maurice Papon / Company president and government minister
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ateliers Sud Aviation (Saint-Martin-du-Touch). 11 décembre 1967. Plan taille de Maurice Papon (Président de Sud Aviation) remettant un souvenir à Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (ministre anglais de la Technologie), les deux hommes se serrent la main, autres personnalités autour. Cliché pris lors de la présentation officielle du prototype français du Concorde.
context_page_description: Maurice Papon was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bordeaux during World War II, he participated in the deportation of more than 1600 Jews. He is also known for his activities in the Algerian War, during which he tortured insurgent prisoners as prefect of the Constantinois department, and ordered, as prefect of the Paris police, the severe repression of a pro-National Liberation Front demonstration against a curfew that he had "advised."
  In 1961, Maurice Papon was personally awarded the Legion of Honour by French President Charles de Gaulle, whose government had been struggling with FLN terrorism. Papon was also in charge of the Paris police during the February 1962 massacre at the Charonne metro station, which took place during an anti-Organisation armée secrète demonstration that had been organised by the French Communist Party.
context_section_description: De Gaulle helped Papon become president of the company Sud Aviation (1967–1968). The firm, which later merged into Aérospatiale, built the first Concorde plane in 1969. During May 1968, he wrote: "Is it the return of the Occupation? The young German anarchist [Daniel] Cohn-Bendit is freely arranging the riots." The new chief of the Paris police managed to take care of the situation without a single death.
  Papon was elected deputy of Cher as candidate of the Gaullist Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR) in May 1968. He was re-elected in 1973 and again in 1978 (now for the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR). He was elected mayor of Saint-Amand-Montrond in 1971 and 1977. Papon was director of the Verreries mécaniques champenoises, a glass art firm in Reims.
  On the evening of 4–5 June 1977, a commando shot at workers on strike, killing CGT trade-unionist Pierre Maître and severely injuring two others. Four of the five members of the commando, members of the CGT were arrested by the police. The leader of the commando and shooter, who received a 20-year sentence, and the driver were members of the Service d'Action Civique.
  From 1968 to 1971, Papon was treasurer of the UDR. He became President of the Finance Commission of the National Assembly in 1972 and was the deputy presenting the budget (rapporteur général du budget) from 1973 to 1978. He served as Budget Minister under Prime Minister Raymond Barre and President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1978 to 1981, before finishing his mayoral term in 1983 and renouncing further political activity.
caption: Maurice Papon shaking Tony Benn's hand during the presentation of the Concorde.
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