Gaston Defferre
 Gaston Defferre      ( politician) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 14 September 1910 Marsillargues, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 7 May 1986 (Age 75) Marseille, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Aix-Marseille University | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest of | Club Jean Molin | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | French Section of the Workers' International, Socialist Party (France) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Attended the 1964 Bilderberg conference before becoming the Socialist candidate for president in 1969.
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Gaston Defferre was a French Socialist politician. He attended the 1964 Bilderberg conference before becoming the Socialist candidate for president in 1969, where he received only 5 percent of the vote.
In 1982 the EIR profiled him as
Most Frenchmen are persuaded that Gaston Defferre is one of the "untouchable" bosses of the "French Connection" drug ring uncovered by American anti-drug authorities in the early 1970s. Defferre has done everything possible to live up to this public image, and through massive purges in the police, and a virtual shooting war against his Mafia opponents, Defferre has succeeded, at least temporarily, in installing his own mob in power. At the same time he worked to dismantle France's law enforcement apparatus, Defferre launched a major fight for control of the Mafia networks hegemonic under the former regime, networks generally associated with the Mafia elements in the neo-Gaullist RPR party and clustered around, the Service d'Action Civique (SAC)[1]
Career
Defferre was a lawyer and a member of the French section of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), what later became the Socialist Party. He was a significant political force in the south-east of France, owning the major centre-left newspaper Le Provençal (based on the Liberation newspaper), and later also taking over the right-wing daily Le Méridional. At the liberation in 1944 he was briefly elected mayor of Marseille. He resigned in 1945 but was re-elected in 1953, and remained mayor continuously until his death in 1986.
In his region, he was met by the strong French Communist Party (PCF) with which he was often in conflict. As mayor, he relied on the support of the non-Gaullist centre-right members of the municipal council. Similarly, he advocated a national alliance between the SFIO and the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP).
During the Fourth French Republic he was a member of the National Assembly for the SFIO from 1945 to 1958. He was Secretary of State for Information from 26 January to 24 June 1946, Undersecretary for the French Overseas Territories from 16 December 1946 to 22 January 1947, Minister of the Merchant Marine from 12 July 1950 to 11 August 1951, and Minister of the French Overseas Territories from 1 February 1956 to 13 June 1957.[2]
In 1958, despite being in favor of the establishment of the French Fifth Republic, he preferred to switch to the opposition. He was senator from 1959 to 1962 and again deputy to the National Assembly from 1962 to 1981.[3]
In 1965 he was pushed by the Express owned by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber to run for president, but prefers to give up.
Defferre was the socialist candidate in the 1969 French presidential election, supported by ex-prime minister Pierre Mendes-France, who would have been reinstated had Defferre been elected. However, he was defeated due to polarization in French politics after the events of May 1968, receiving only 5% of the vote, the lowest ever for a French Socialist candidate. He subsequently left the leadership of the socialist party.
Having been the main opponent of Guy Mollet in the party, and leader of the socialist group in the National Assembly, Defferre helped François Mitterrand take the lead during the Epinay Congress (1971), despite Mitterrand's strategy of an alliance with the communists. He later was Mitterrand's Minister of the Interior from 1981 to 1984. He was the architect of the 1982 decentralization reforms. He continued as Minister of plans until 1986, and died as mayor of Marseille.[4]
In 1967 he starred in the last duel in France. He defeated after 4 minutes of fighting his colleague Rene Ribiere, who had challenged him to the sword for being insulted by him.[5][6]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1964 | 20 March 1964 | 22 March 1964 | US Virginia Williamsburg | A year after this meeting, the post of GATT/Director-General was set up, and given Eric Wyndham White, who attended the '64 meeting. Several subsequent holders have been Bilderberg insiders, only 2 are not known to have attended the group. |
References
- ↑ https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1982/eirv09n20-19820525/eirv09n20-19820525_027-interior_minister_defferre_leads.pdf
- ↑ https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche/%28num_dept%29/2216
- ↑ https://www.senat.fr/senateur/defferre_gaston000250.html
- ↑ https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gaston-defferre/
- ↑ http://www.historien-anecdotique.fr/2013/09/dernier-duel-1967-defferre-ribiere.html
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gaston-Defferre
