Francis Wurtz

Francis Wurtz (March 2009)

Francis Wurtz [wyrtz] (born January 3, 1948 in Strasbourg ) is a politician of the French Communist Party (PCF). He had been a member of the European Parliament since the first direct election in 1979 and was chairman of the Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left from 1999 until he left the European Parliament in 2009 .

Education, profession and work for the PCF

Francis Wurtz obtained a university degree in literature in 1968 and worked as a teacher at a state school from 1969 to 1973 . In 1973 he became a PCF party official and secretary of the PCF in the Bas-Rhin department . He held this post for three years and then worked in the General Secretariat of the PCF as an employee of Georges Marchais . When he was elected to the European Parliament in 1979, he became a member of the PCF Central Committee . In 1982 he left the General Secretariat of the PCF and was appointed Secretary of the Committee for the Defense of Freedoms and Human Rights in France and the World , chaired by Georges Marchais . In 1990 he joined the Politburo of the PCF and was entrusted with the management of the international department of the PCF from 1992 to 1999. In 2004 he participated in the union of the European Left . In the PCF he was one of those who campaigned for the European Left, which was controversial within the PCF. He also writes for L'Humanité .

Parliamentary work

In 1979 Wurtz was elected to the European Parliament and re-elected in 1984 , 1989 , 1994 , 1999 and 2004 respectively. This made him the only French MEP who had been a member of Parliament without interruption since the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979 . In 1994 he was the top candidate for the PCF in the European elections and in 1999 headed the Île de France's PCF list . Since 1999 he has been chairman of the group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left . In 2004 he ran for President of the European Parliament and received 51 votes. He campaigned against Commissioner Frits Bolkestein's Services Directive and was a member of the Conference of Presidents and the Euro - Latin American Parliamentary Assembly . In 2009 he did not run for the European elections . Since this election, the PCF has been represented in his constituency by Patrick Le Hyaric, who was elected as part of the Front de gauche election platform in the European Parliament.

Works

• Le révélateur africain (Messidor, 1990)
• Un monde à changer (Scandéditions, June 1993)

Web links

• Page by Francis Wurtz (French)
• Entry on Francis Wurtz in the European Parliament 's database of deputies