France-Albert René

France-Albert René (2014)

France-Albert René (often abbreviated to Albert René ; * November 16, 1935 on Mahé ; † February 27, 2019 there ) was President of the Seychelles from 1977 to 2004 .

Early years

The son of a plantation manager grew up on the Farquhar Atoll . The family did not belong to the upper class, despite their European origins. With the help of scholarships René could attend high school on Mahé and studied in the United Kingdom law at Saint Mary's College and King's College London and in Switzerland before becoming a 1957-1961 lawyer in Victoria , capital of Seychelles, was active. Politically, he oriented himself towards the Labor Party , which was led by Clement Attlee and later Hugh Gaitskell during his time in London . His ideal was initially a moderate socialist ideology with close ties to conservative forces such as the Roman Catholic Church . Originally his career aspiration was a priest, but he later distanced himself from the church when it criticized his policies.

Politician

In 1964 he founded the Seychelles People's United Party (SPUP), which opposed the conservative Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) founded in the same year by James Mancham . The SDP won the first elections for the islands belonging to Great Britain in 1967 and also won in November 1970, when they received 10 seats and Renés SPUP 5. He himself also won a seat in this election. In the last free elections in April 1974 for decades the SDP received 13 and the SPUP 2 seats. In contrast to Mancham, René was an advocate of independence from an early age.

On June 29, 1976, when the country gained independence, Mancham became President and René became Prime Minister. Both collaboration ended on June 5, 1977, when Mancham, who had traveled to London for a Commonwealth summit conference, was ousted in a coup and René took his place.

president

His party, renamed Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF) in 1978 , became the unity party the following year . a. from Tanzania , Algeria , Libya and the GDR . In the presidential elections in June 1979, June 17, 1984 and June 1989, he was confirmed in office unopposed. The parliamentary elections of June 1979, August 7, 1983 and December 5, 1987 brought his party all seats.

Foreign policy

On November 25, 1981, an attempt to overthrow him failed. A group of mercenaries led by "Mad" Mike Hoare , mostly from South Africa and Rhodesia , traveled to the islands disguised as tourists. The security forces noticed the travelers' weapons, most of whom escaped after a gun battle. A United Nations investigation held South Africa responsible for the incident. Ex-President Mancham, who lived in exile in England, and the USA were also suspected . René's relationship with the Americans was strained by his socialist course and because of his opposition to the expansion of the still British island of Diego Garcia into a military base. South Africa bought the captured mercenaries free for around US $ 3 million. Further attempts to overthrow René failed in 1986 and 1987. He maintained good relations with Tanzania, North Korea and the Soviet Union , but without becoming too closely involved with the Eastern bloc at the time .

Domestic politics

René placed high value on education, health care and the environment. Compared to the rest of Africa, the Seychelles performed well in terms of child mortality, literacy rates, and median income and standard of living . Resistance was met by the compulsion that all secondary school students had to join the state National Youth Service , which was modeled on the youth organizations of the then Eastern Bloc. Like his predecessor Mancham, he focused on the expansion of tourism . In order to finance the social expenditure, René also promoted the settlement of international banks and built an offshore financial center . Despite the occasional overthrow attempt, his regime was considered stable due to the balance of interests between socialism and capitalism.

During René's tenure, the Seychelles were repeatedly criticized for disregarding human rights , torture , corruption and the one-party system. Many opposition members sought refuge in other countries. His reign has also been linked to the death of prominent opposition activist Gérard Horau in London.

Democratization

In the course of the general democratization of the African states, he gave up the one-party state from 1991. The first multi-party elections since 1974 took place from July 20-23, 1993. In the presidential elections he prevailed with 59.5% against Mancham who had returned from exile the previous year. His party won the general election with 27 of the 33 seats. Five years later he received 66.67% of the vote in the elections from March 20-22, 1998, ahead of Wavel Ramkalawan from the Seychelles National Party (SNP) with 19.53% and Mancham with 13.8%. The SPPF remained the dominant party with 30 out of 34 seats. He played his last election from August 31 to September 2, 2001. He won this time with 54.19%, while Wavel Ramkalawan received 44.95%. His party won 23 of the 34 seats. On February 24, 2004, he announced his resignation in favor of his old henchman and Vice President James Alix Michel, who has been in office since 1996 . The change of office took place on April 14, 2004.

literature

• Fischer World Almanac - Biographies on Contemporary History since 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1985, ISBN 3-596-24553-2
• France Albert René , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 43/2010 from October 26, 2010, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : France-Albert René  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official site of the Seychelles People's Progressive Front ( Memento of 9 October 2007 at the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Page of the party newspaper The People newspaper and the SPPF Museum (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Seychelles: Former President France Albert Rene Passed Away At 83 Years Old. In: AllAfrica.com. February 27, 2019, accessed on February 28, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Kevin Shillington: History of Modern Seychelles . Macmillan, Oxford 2009. ISBN 978-1-4050-6034-9 , p. 76
3. ↑ The Seychelles - Gangsta's Paradise. In: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Retrieved April 23, 2015, February 9, 2018 (American English).