Antoine Pinay

Antoine Pinay (1969)

Antoine Pinay (born December 30, 1891 in Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise , Rhône , † December 13, 1994 in Saint-Chamond , Loire ) was a French politician ( CNIP ), Prime Minister from March 1952 to January 1953 and from 1955 to 1956 Foreign Minister of France.

Signature of Antoine Pinays under the Austrian State Treaty 1955

Life

Pinay, the son of a successful hat manufacturer, first completed a commercial apprenticeship. The First World War cost him the functionality of an arm. He then built a successful company out of the Fouletier family's tannery in Saint-Chamond .

Third Republic and Vichy

In Saint-Chamond, a small town near Saint-Étienne , Pinay was mayor from 1929 to 1944. In addition, he became a non-attached member of the Loire department in the French National Assembly in 1936 . Between 1938 and 1940 he was a member of the Senate , where he acted as a representative of the conservative bourgeoisie and the commercial middle class. In July 1940 he agreed to transfer power to Marshal Philippe Pétain .

Although Pinay rejected the collaboration policy of the Vichy regime under Pétain, he remained in his offices during the German occupation. Therefore, after the liberation of France, he was initially one of the "Ineligible". "The general recognition of the population for his services and the fact that he hid German Jews from the Gestapo, however, soon allows him to return to political offices."

Fourth republic

Pinay was elected to the constituent National Assembly as early as 1945 and was also a member of the National Assembly from 1946, where he joined the faction of the "Independent Republicans" (Républicains indépendants) . From 1947 to 1977 he was again mayor of his hometown Saint-Chamond, which almost tripled its population in these three decades. In addition, Pinay was President of the General Council of the Loire Department from 1949 to 1979 . As early as 1948, as State Secretary for Economic Affairs, he was a member of the government in the 1st and 2nd Cabinet Queuille . From July 1950 to March 1952 he was Minister for Public Works and Transport.

The year 1952 brought Pinay himself to the government of the Fourth Republic , from February to December 22nd of that year he was Prime Minister and Minister of Finance . His government was a coalition of Pinay's conservative-liberal Center national des indépendants et paysans (CNIP), the left-wing liberal Parti radical , the Christian Democratic Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP) and the UDSR . In this role he fought inflation and stabilized the French economy. The so-called Pinay bond, tied to the gold price and tax-free, provided the state with new financial resources. Pinay's government ended when he resigned due to opposition to a planned tax reform.

Pinay (left) with Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , 1955

In 1953 he became party leader of the CNIP. Together with the lawyer and secret agent Jean Violet, the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Franz Josef Strauss , Pinay founded the foreign and security policy think tank Le Cercle in 1952/53 . This campaigned for a reconciliation between France and (West) Germany as well as an integration into the Atlantic Alliance . Pinay attended the first Bilderberg Conference in 1954 . After he had tried in 1955 unsuccessfully to form a government again, Pinay was 1955-1956 Foreign Minister in the second Faure cabinet . As such, he took part in the Geneva summit conference and signed the Austrian State Treaty . He was also concerned with the Morocco crisis, which ended with the independence of the French and Spanish protectorates of Morocco.

Fifth Republic

During the state crisis in May 1958, Pinay supported a transfer of power to Charles de Gaulle . He was appointed French Prime Minister and after the constitutional amendment elected the first President of the Fifth French Republic . Under de Gaulle, Pinay was the first economics and finance minister from 1958 to 1960 and tried to bring about the economic and financial rehabilitation of France. In 1958 he played a key role in the introduction of the new French franc (Nouveau Franc, NF). The future President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing served as State Secretary in Pinay's ministry. However, when he refused to reform trade law and improve the position of the trade unions, he was forced to resign in January 1960.

From 1960 to 1985 he was president of the lobby organization Compagnie française pour la diffusion des techniques , from 1962 he was also a consultant of the Societé pour l'expansion industrial français à l'étranger , from 1964 to 1973 he was also president of the regional economic development agency in Rhône- Alpes .

Pinay (right) and President Georges Pompidou , 1969

Pinay considered in the 1965 presidential election as a candidate for the non- Gaullist , i.e. H. Economically liberal, pro-European and pro-Atlantic, center-right parties to run against de Gaulle. However, he refrained from doing so because reports of involvement in the so-called ballets roses could blackmail him. Pinay had a reputation for having a preference for very young women and there was an investigation into "immoral contact with a minor" (the age of majority at the time was 21).

After Pinay had supported the presidential candidacy of the Gaullist Georges Pompidou in 1969 , he was appointed the first French mediator (Médiateur de la République) for a year in 1973 to resolve tensions between government, parliament and administration. His former state secretary, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, also received the support of Pinay when he was elected president in 1974. When Pinay celebrated his 100th birthday in 1991, he called for the resignation of President François Mitterrand and praised the future Prime Minister Édouard Balladur .

At 102 years of age, he was the longest-lived Prime Minister of France.

Web links

Commons : Antoine Pinay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Antoine Pinay in the catalog of the German National Library
• Dorlis Blume, Irmgard Zündorf: Antoine Pinay. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
• Biography Antoine Pinays (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Dorlis Blume, Irmgard Zündorf: Antoine Pinay. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
2. ^ Sylvie Guillaume: Antoine Pinay, ou, La confiance en politique. Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1984, p. 118.
3. ^ Adrian Hänni: A Global Crusade against Communism. The Cercle in the “Second Cold War”. In: Luc van Dongen u. a .: Transnational Anti-Communism and the Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan, London 2014, pp. 161-174.
4. ↑ Thomas W. Gijswijt: Informal Alliance. The Bilderberg Group and Transatlantic Relations during the Cold War, 1952-1968. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2019.
5. ↑ Christophe Dubois, Christophe Deloire: Sexus politicus. Albin Michel, Paris 2006. Chapter 4 Chantages et tracts .
6. ↑ Michelle Zancarini Portrait d'Antoine Pinay - Éclairage. INA, Lumières sur Rhône-Alpes .

predecessor	Office	successor
Edgar Faure	Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic March 8, 1952 - December 23, 1952	René Mayer