Georges Spénale

Georges Spénale (born November 29, 1913 in Carcassonne , † August 20, 1983 in Paris ) was a French politician of the Socialist Party . He was the last French High Commissioner to Togo before independence in 1960 and from 1975 to 1977 President of the European Parliament .

Life

Studied and worked in colonial administration

Spénale earned a university degree ( licentiate ) in law from the École nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer and then embarked on a career in the French colonial administration . His first job was in French Guinea from 1938 to 1939 . With the beginning of the Second World War he fought in the French armed forces until 1941 . From 1941 to 1942 he was district chairman in Upper Volta and from 1942 to 1943 labor inspector in the Ivory Coast . He then fought in the war again until 1945. In 1946 and 1948 he worked as cabinet director for French Equatorial Africa . In 1949 and 1950 he was head of the information service in the Ivory Coast. In 1951 and 1953 he was cabinet director of Cameroon and then general secretary of that colony. In 1954 he became High Commissioner for Cameroon and in 1955 deputy head of the political department for the French overseas territories . In 1956 he was briefly governor of the French overseas territories. In 1956 and 1957 he worked as cabinet director for the overseas territories under Minister Gaston Defferre . From 1957 until independence in 1960 he was the French high commissioner in Togo .

Political career in France and in Europe

Between 1962 and 1973 Spénale was a member of the National Assembly for the Tarn department and a member of the finance committee there. In 1964 he was also elected to the General Council of the Tarn Department and in the same year also a member of the European Parliament . In 1973 he was elected to the regional council of the Midi-Pyrénées region and in 1975 became vice-president of the regional council. In 1974 he was promoted to chairman of the social democratic group in the European Parliament and in 1975 became President of Parliament. He held this office until 1977. In 1979 he left the European Parliament and became a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe . In 1979 and 1982 he was also Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly.