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 . Biography . Early years . Debré was born in Paris , the son of the well - known Jewish professor Robert Debré , who is today considered by many to be the founder of modern pediatrics . Michel Debré himself was a 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 Ph . D . 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 d ' État . 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 d ' État , 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 Joseph Bartholomew . After the German invasion of the free zone in November 1942 , Debré ' s 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 d ' administration , 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 . C ' est là que vous trouverez les derniers vestiges du sens de l ' Etat " – " 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 – ) , journalist ; Bernard Debré ( born in 1944 ) , 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 Debré ' s 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 day earlier . He also noted that the invalidation of Gabriel Macé ' s 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 d ' Estaing 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 island ' s 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 Electoral mandates European Parliament Senate of France National Assembly General Council Municipal Council Debré ' s Government , 8 January 1959 – 15 April 1962 . Changes