Raymond Barre

Raymond Barre   (politician, deep state operative?)
Born	1924-04-12 St-Denis, France
Died	2007-08-25 (Age 83) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Founder of	CEPII
Member of	Institut Aspen France, Opus Dei, Trilateral Commission, US/Department/State/International Visitor Leadership Program
Party	Union for French Democracy, Independent
French PM, single Bilderberger  Prime Minister of France  In office 26 August 1976 - 22 May 1981 Preceded by Jacques Chirac  Mayor of Lyon In office 1995 - 2001 Preceded by Michel Noir  France/Minister of the Economy and Finance In office 27 August 1976 - 5 April 1978  European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs  In office 7 February 1967 - 5 January 1973

Raymond Barre was a French neoliberal economist, suspected deep state operative and Prime Minister 1976-1981. In 1995 he took over as Mayor of Lyon from fellow Bilderberger Michel Noir.

Career

After his education, he was appointed professor at the Faculty of Law and Economics of Caen, but did not immediately join his post and, for four years, carried out missions at the Institute of Higher Studies in Tunis, a colony the cusp of becoming independent. Barre came a proponent of neoliberalism, and in 1953, he translated the work of the liberal Friedrich Hayek published the previous year.

From 1959 to 1962, Raymond Barre was chief of staff to Jean-Marcel Jeanneney, Minister of Industry in the Michel Debré government, where he was described as a "grey eminence". He then became a professor of economics at the Institut d'études politiques in Paris, at the Faculty of Law and Economics in Paris, as well as at the École centrale Paris.

In 1967, he was appointed Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Economic and Financial Affairs, a post he held until 1973.

His period was marked by the action in favor of economic and monetary union between the member states of the European Economic Community, and he started the process for the common currency, the euro.

Death of Robert Boulin

His passage to become PM was marked by the death, in 1979, in circumstances which gave rise to an important controversy, of the Minister of Labor, Robert Boulin. While according to the official version the body of Robert Boulin was not found in a pond in the forest of Rambouillet until 8:40 am, Raymond Barre claims to have been warned of the discovery of the body at 03:18 am. This delay of more than five hours would have made it possible to cover up a possible assassination of the minister as a suicide; the hypothesis of the involvement of the RPR, which was concerned about the possible appointment of Robert Boulin as PM, who was a member of the Gaullist party, has been mentioned.

Prime Minister

On August 25, 1976, Raymond Barre was appointed Prime Minister by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, after the resignation of the government of Jacques Chirac. President Giscard d'Estaing, with whom he had regular meetings in Brussels several years earlier, said of him that he was "one of the best economists in France". He was also appointed Minister of Economy and Finance, a position he held until March 1978. It was the first time that, under the Fifth Republic, a head of government exercised at the same time another ministerial function.

During his time as PM, he introduced a deeply unpopular neoliberal austerity program, which led to socialist Francois Mitterand winning the 1982 presidential election, but where the neoliberal program continued.

Smear/pressure campaign

On October 3, 1980, following the terror attack against a Jewish center a on rue Copernic, he declared: "This heinous attack which wanted to strike the Israelites who were going to the synagogue and which struck innocent Frenchmen who crossed rue Copernic". This awkward phrasing caused a controversy. Speaking on October 8, 1980 in the gallery of the National Assembly, he wished to assure his "Jewish compatriots" of the "sympathy of the whole nation".

Shortly before his death, Raymond Barre denied the slip, and attributed this smear campaign to the "Jewish lobby closely linked to the left", which he considered "capable of mounting operations which are unworthy".

Activities

Barre wrote a working paper on The Future of World Trade for the 1983 Bilderberg.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1983	13 May 1983	15 May 1983	Canada Quebec Château Montebello	The 31st Bilderberg, held in Canada

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.