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Pierre Pflimlin

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Pierre Pflimlin
Official portrait, 1984
Prime Minister of France
In office
14 May 1958 – 1 June 1958
PresidentRené Coty
Preceded byFélix Gaillard
Succeeded byCharles de Gaulle
President of the European Parliament
In office
24 July 1984 – 10 January 1987
Preceded byPiet Dankert
Succeeded byCharles Henry Plumb
Personal details
Born
Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin

5 February 1907
Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Died27 June 2000(2000-06-27) (aged 93)
Strasbourg, Alsace, France
Political partyPopular Republican Movement
(1944–1966)
Democratic Centre
(1966–1976)
Centre of Social Democrats
(1976–1995)
Other political
affiliations
Union for French Democracy
(1978–1995)

Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin (French: [pjɛʁ flimlɛ̃]; 5 February 1907 – 27 June 2000) was a French Christian Democrat politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during the crisis of that year.

Life

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Pflimlin was born in Roubaix in the Nord department. A lawyer and a member of the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), he was elected deputy of département Bas Rhin in 1945. With his personal roots in Alsace, Pflimlin numbered among his MRP party colleagues the Luxembourg-born Robert Schuman; for both, relations with Germany played an important role in their political thinking.

He held some governmental offices during the Fourth Republic, notably as Minister of Agriculture (1947–1949 and 1950–1951) and as Minister of Economy and Finance (1955–1956, 1957–1958).

Prime Minister of France

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On 13 May 1958, the French National Assembly approved his nomination as Prime Minister. But the same day, riots took place in Algiers. The French generals in Algeria feared he would arrange for a negotiated solution with the Algerian nationalists giving them control of Algeria. They refused to recognize his cabinet. At this point the leading politicians deserted him, including Guy Mollet, Vincent Auriol, and Antoine Pinay. The crisis culminated in a coup d'état in Algiers that was resolved with his resignation, thus facilitating Charles de Gaulle accession to the post of Prime Minister on 1 June.[1]

Subsequent public offices

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Pflimlin was Minister of State until 1959. As Minister of Cooperation in 1962, he resigned with the other MRP ministers in order to protest against the euro-scepticism of de Gaulle.

Pflimlin served as the first Catholic mayor of Strasbourg from 1959 to 1983.

He also was the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1963 to 1966 and President of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1987.

Honors

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The Pierre Pflimlin bridge over the Rhine south of Strasbourg, connecting France to Germany, is named after him and was opened in 2002.

Government (14 May – 1 June 1958)

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Changes:

  • 17 May 1958 – Maurice Faure becomes Minister of European Institutions. Jules Moch succeeds Faure as Minister of the Interior. Albert Gazier enters the ministry as Minister of Information. Max Lejeune succeeds Houphouët-Boigny as Minister of State.

References

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  1. ^ Robert Gildea, France since 1945 (1996) p 44

Further reading

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  • "The Little Plum". Time. 10 June 1957. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011.
  • Cook, Bernard A. (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 975–76. ISBN 9780815340584.
  • Morris, Peter. "Homo politicus; the political careers of Pierre Pflimlin and Jacques Chaban‐Delmas." Modern & Contemporary France 1.1 (1993): 42–44.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Agriculture
1947–1949
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Agriculture
1950–1951
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Commerce and External Commercial Relations
1951–1952
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister for the Council of Europe
1952
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Overseas France
1952–1953
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning
1955–1956
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs
1957–1958
Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of France
1958
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister of State
1958–1959
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Cooperation
1962
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
1963–1966
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the European Parliament
1984–1987
Succeeded by