Georges Gorse

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Georges Gorse (born February 15, 1915 in Cahors , Département Lot ; † March 17, 2002 in Paris ) was a French politician of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO), the Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR) and the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), who was a member of the National Assembly between 1946 and 1951 and was temporarily Undersecretary of State. He was later Ambassador to Tunisia from 1957 to 1959 and State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between May 1961 and May 1962.

He was then Minister for Cooperation, between 1963 and 1967 Ambassador to Algeria and from April 1967 to May 1968 Minister of Information and then again a member of the National Assembly. After he was Minister for Labor, Employment and Population from April 1973 to May 1974, he was again a member of the National Assembly until 1997. He also served as Mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt between 1971 and 1991 .

Life

Teacher, World War II and de Gaulle staff

Gorse was orphaned as a five-year-old in 1920 and grew up with his maternal grandparents in Nantes and in the Vendée department . After attending the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand , he began in 1936 to study at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and took to the Agrégation a career as a teacher at the French school in Egypt on before he 1939 to 1940 as Maître de conférences a Lecturer at Cairo University .

In June 1940 Gorse joined the Forces françaises libres (FFL) founded by Charles de Gaulle and soon after became head of the information department of the Delegation of Free France in the Middle East . In January 1943 he gave up this activity and went on a diplomatic mission trip for Free France to the Soviet Union . In December 1943 he was appointed by de Gaulle, who was meanwhile the sole president of the Committee for the National Liberation CFLN (Comité français de la Liberation nationale) , in his cabinet office. At that time he was appointed by de Gaulle after confirmation by the Provisional Consultative Assembly (Assemblée consultative provisoire) of the Free France as a member of the six-member Council of the Ordre de la Liberation . After the liberation of Paris , he accompanied de Gaulle on his parade on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées . For his services in the resistance against the German occupation forces, he was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance .

Post War and Fourth Republic

Member of the Constituent Assemblies

In the post-war period, however, Gorse did not initially join the Gaullist parties and movements, but rather the socialist Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO). He ran on the list of the SFIO in the elections for the first National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale Constituante) on October 21, 1945 in the Département Vendée and was elected with 33,139 of the 198,130 votes cast. During his membership in parliament he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Commission des affaires étrangères) between 1945 and 1951 and from October 1945 to June 1946 also a member of the Committee on Justice and General Legislation (Commission de la justice et de la législation générale) .

In the elections for the second National Constituent Assembly on June 2, 1946, he ran again on the list of the SFIO in this department. He was re-elected with 31,001 of the 204,174 votes cast, just ahead of the applicant for the Parti communiste français (PCF) and mayor of Les Sables-d'Olonne , Odette Roux , whom he was able to beat with only 613 votes.

Member of the National Assembly and Undersecretary of State

He voted for the constitution of October 13, 1946 , which, after its adoption in a referendum, led to the establishment of the French Fourth Republic on October 21, 1946. In the elections that took place on November 10, 1946 for the first national assembly of the Fourth Republic, he was again elected a member of the SFIO in the Vendée department. During the legislative period from November 1946 to June 1951 he was a member of the press committee (Commission de la Presse) and the committee for the overseas territories (Commission des territoires d'outre-mer) .

On December 20, 1946, Gorse was Prime Minister Léon Blum's undersecretary for Muslim affairs (Sous-secrétaire d'Etat aux affaires musulmanes) in his third government , to which he belonged until January 22, 1947. In this role he was responsible for measures for the Arab population groups. He later became a judge at the Supreme Court of Justice (Haute Cour de justice) in 1948 , two-thirds of which consisted of MPs and one-third of other people.

Prime Minister Georges Bidault appointed him on October 28, 1949 as Undersecretary of State in the Ministry for the Overseas Territories (Sous-secrétaire d'Etat à la France d'outre-mer) in its second government . He remained in this office until February 7, 1950 and was also temporarily deputy delegate of France in the United Nations General Assembly in 1950 .

Election defeats in 1951 and 1956

In the elections of June 17, 1951, Gorse suffered a defeat and resigned from the National Assembly after receiving only 19.9 percent of the 195,103 votes cast. Three days before the election, he spoke out against the attempt by the bourgeois or Gaullist parties Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP), Parti républicain de la liberté (PRL) and Rassemblement du peuple français (RPF) to prevent his re-election with the help of the Church.

On July 12, 1952, Gorse was elected by the National Assembly as a member of the Council of the Union française , an organization founded in the course of decolonization after the Second World War in 1946 with the aim of reshaping the colonial empire of France along the lines of the British Commonwealth of Nations .

His candidacy in the elections of January 2, 1956 was again unsuccessful. This time he was able to achieve 38,685 of the 210,841 votes cast (17 percent), but all mandates fell to the bourgeois-Gaullist parties.

Ambassador to Tunisia

Some time later, in 1956, because of his knowledge, he was the organizer of a visit by Foreign Minister Christian Pineau to Cairo , where he was accompanied by the President of Egypt , Gamal Abdel Nasser . Shortly afterwards, he also prepared the first meetings between the government of Prime Minister Guy Mollet and the Algerian liberation movement Nationale Liberation Front FLN (Front de Liberation Nationale) .

On January 23, 1957, Gorse was appointed ambassador to Tunisia by Prime Minister Mollet, after France granted independence on March 20, 1956. While he was there, Habib Bourguiba became the first president of the Tunisian Republic after Lamine Bey was deposed on July 25, 1957 . On February 8, 1958, there was an attack on Sakhiet Sidi Youssef, in which French fighter planes bombed the Tunisian village after French planes were shot near the border. 79 people, all civilians, died in the attack. He was then called back to Paris as ambassador before being sent back to Tunisia by Prime Minister de Gaulle on June 23, 1958. He remained in this post until November 1959.

Fifth Republic

State Secretary, Minister and Ambassador to Algeria

On May 18, 1961, Gorse was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secrétaire d'État aux Affaires étrangères) in his cabinet by Prime Minister Michel Debré . In this office he remained in the subsequent first government of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou from April 14 to May 16, 1962. On December 8, 1961, the President of Dahomey Coutoucou Hubert Maga awarded him the title of Grand Officer of the National Order of Dahomey.

As part of a government reshuffle, he then took over the post of Minister for Cooperation (Ministre de la Coopération) from Pierre Pflimlin on May 16, 1962 and held this position until the end of the first Pompidou government on November 28, 1962.

President Charles de Gaulle appointed Gorse on January 18, 1963 to succeed Jean-Marcel Jeanneney as ambassador to Algeria . He held this office until 1967 and was replaced by Pierre de Leusse on May 17, 1967 .

Member of the National Assembly and Minister of Information in the fourth Pompidou cabinet

Gorse, who had since resigned from the SFIO, was re-elected as a candidate for the Gaullist Union des Démocrates pour la Ve République (UDR) in the elections of March 12, 1967 in the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department .

After Gorse, who on April 6, 1967 initially became a member of the Committee for National Defense and Armed Forces (Commission de la défense nationale et des forces armées) , on April 7, 1967, Prime Minister Pompidou took over as Minister of Information (Ministre de l 'Information) had been appointed to the fourth government of the country , he resigned his seat on May 7, 1967. The "Québec Libre" affair also occurred at this time . De Gaulle wanted to take part in the nation's centenary celebrations in Canada and the 1967 World's Fair , but provoked the indignation of the federalists when he shouted in front of a crowd of 100,000 Québecans in Montréal : "Long live free Québec!" Vive le Québec libre! ”), Accompanied by general, great applause. This sparked a government crisis in Canada. Gorse then confirmed, as information minister and government spokesman, in a press conference linked to the publication of the declaration that the position taken by the president in Québec was the unanimous position of the French government.

After the student unrest of May 1968 , he resigned from his ministerial office on May 31, 1968 and was replaced by Yves Guéna .

Re-elected in 1968 and 1973 and mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt

After the National Assembly was dissolved because of the unrest and new elections were held early on June 30, 1968, Gorse ran for the Union pour la défense de la République (UDR) again in the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department. After moving back to the Palais Bourbon , he became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee on July 13, 1968 and was a member of it until the end of the fourth legislative period on April 1, 1973.

During this time Gorse stood up for the establishment of relations with the German Democratic Republic . His contacts led to a meeting on June 25, 1970 in his private apartment in Paris between Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann and Hermann Axen , who as a member of the Politburo of the SED Central Committee was responsible for international relations. The conversation took place almost a week before a meeting between President Georges Pompidou and Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt . In December 1970 he made his own trip to the GDR. In an article in the daily newspaper Le Monde on February 24, 1971, he called for the GDR to be recognized.

In the meantime, Gorse was elected mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt for the first time on March 21, 1971, replacing Albert Agogué of the SFIO, who had held this office since 1965. After being re-elected several times, he held the position of mayor for 20 years and was finally replaced by Paul Graziani on May 21, 1991 .

In the elections to the National Assembly on March 11, 1973, Gorse was re-elected a member of the National Assembly for the Union des démocrates pour la République (UDR) in the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department and was again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Minister for Labor, Employment and Population 1973 to 1974

On April 6, 1973 Prime Minister Pierre Messmer appointed Gorse as Minister for Labor, Employment and Population (Ministre du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Population) in his second cabinet , whereupon he took up his mandate in the National Assembly on May 5, 1973 resigned. He also held the office of Minister for Labor, Employment and Population from February 28 to May 28, 1974 in the third Messmer government .

During his tenure, Gorse introduced several bills such as the amendment of the labor law regarding the termination of open-ended contracts (April 25, 1973), to combat trafficking in labor (May 10, 1973), to improve working conditions (October 2, 1973) , for the subscription or acquisition of shares in companies by their employees (October 2, 1973), on the conditions for the formation of works councils or the appointment of shop stewards in companies (October 4, 1973) as well as for ensuring court settlements, the liquidation of assets and Payments of Employment Contract Claims (October 17, 1973).

Member of the National Assembly from 1978 to 1997

In the elections of March 19, 1978, Gorse was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate for the Rassemblement pour la République (RPF) in the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department. Subsequently, on April 6, 1978, he was again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and on January 24, 1979 also a member of a special committee to investigate the development of direct local taxes.

On June 14, 1981, he was re-elected as a member of the RPR and also represented the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the seventh legislative term. After moving back to the Palais Bourbon, he was again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee on July 4, 1981. Also in the elections of March 16, 1986 Gorse was re-elected for the RPR in the tenth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department as a member of the National Assembly and on April 5, 1986 again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Gorse was re-elected to the National Assembly on June 5, 1988 for the RPR, where he now represented the ninth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department. In this ninth legislative period, too, he became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee on June 25, 1988. Most recently he was re-elected a member of the National Assembly in the elections of March 21, 1993 for the RPR in the ninth constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department. After moving back to the Palais Bourbon, he was again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee on April 8, 1993. He was a member of the National Assembly until the end of the 10th legislative period on April 21, 1997.

His marriage to the journalist and novelist Nadine Gelat in 1942 resulted in three children.

The Center Georges Gorse event center in Boulogne-Billancourt was named in his honor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Debré cabinet
  2. ^ Künker Auction 240 - Orders of Chivalry, Decorations and Medals - Estate of the Balck Officiers' Family, Osnabrück, et al. , 2013, p. 245
  3. ↑ Pompidou I cabinet
  4. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (3rd legislative period)
  5. ↑ Pompidou IV cabinet
  6. ↑ Felix de Taillez: "Amour sacré de la Patrie" - de Gaulle in New France: symbolism, rhetoric and historical concept of his speeches in Quebec City in 1967 , 2011, ISBN 3-83164-073-4 , p 175
  7. ^ Cabinet Pompidou IV (remodeling)
  8. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (4th legislative period)
  9. ↑ Ulrich Pfeil: The GDR and the West: transnational relations 1949-1989 , 2001, ISBN 3-86153-244-1 , p. 230 ff.
  10. ↑ Heiner Timmermann: That was the GDR: GDR research in the crosshairs of rule, external relations, culture and sovereignty , 2004, ISBN 3-82588-167-9 , p. 400 ff.
  11. ^ Documents: Journal for Supranational Cooperation , Volume 54, 1998, p. 498 f.
  12. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (5th legislative period)
  13. ↑ Messmer II cabinet
  14. ↑ Messmer III cabinet
  15. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (6th legislative period)
  16. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (7th legislative period)
  17. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (8th legislative period)
  18. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (9th legislative period)
  19. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (10th legislative period)
  20. ^ Center Georges Gorse on the Boulogne-Billancourt homepage
personal data
SURNAME Gorse, Georges
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician (SFIO, UNR, RPF), member of the National Assembly
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Cahors , Lot department
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 2002
Place of death Paris