Jean-François Hory

Jean-François Hory (born May 15, 1949 in Neufchâteau , Département Vosges , † December 28, 2017 in Beaune ) was a French politician . He was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999 and from 1992 to 1995 chairman of the left-liberal Mouvement des radicaux de gauche (MRG).

Life and political career

Hory studied public law (degree with Maîtrise ) and political science ( DESS ) at the University of Strasbourg . In 1976 he went to what was then the overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean on behalf of the French Interior Ministry and became its general secretary.

In the 1981 parliamentary elections, Hory was elected as Mayotte's representative in the National Assembly with the support of the Mouvement populaire mahorais (MPM; "People's Movement of the Mahors") . The MPM actually belonged to the alliance of the former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , but Hory joined the new government majority of François Mitterrand . Since his Parti socialiste (PS) did not want to accept him, he joined their small coalition partner, the left-liberal Mouvement des radicaux de gauche (MRG). He campaigned for Mayotte to remain in France and for a conversion from an overseas territory to a full-fledged department (which was only implemented in 2011). He was a member of parliament until 1986.

Hory was elected to the European Parliament in 1989 via the joint list of the PS and PRG, where he was initially close to the Group of the Party of Social Democrats (SPE). As the successor to Émile Zuccarelli , he was party chairman of the left-liberal Mouvement des radicaux de gauche (MRG) from 1992 to 1995 . His goal was to make the small party more independent of the large ally PS and to bring it to independent importance. Under his leadership, the popular entrepreneur Bernard Tapie , who was also President of Olympique Marseille and Minister for Urban Development, joined the party. The public debated whether Tapie wanted to use the MRG and Hory for their own benefit or, conversely, Hory used tapies to make his party more effective. With Tapie, the previously rather bourgeois MRG took on a left-wing populist orientation and addressed young people, the unemployed and low-wage earners in particular.

In the European elections in 1994 , the MRG ran for the first time separately from the PS under the name Energie Radicale , led by Tapie and Hory. With 12% of the vote, it achieved the best result in its history and received 13 seats in the European Parliament, one of them for Hory. Together with allies from other member states, it formed its own group in the EU Parliament, the Radical European Alliance (ARE). In the legislative period up to 1999, Hory was a member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the Delegation for Relations with South Eastern Europe. However, when various allegations of fraud and corruption against Tapie became public, the party quickly crashed. In 1995, Hory was a short-term candidate for the French presidency, but resigned due to poor poll results and a lack of support from his own party. He then resigned as party leader of the MRG, which then renamed itself under Jean-Michel Baylet in Parti radical-socialiste (PRS) and finally Parti radical de gauche (PRG).

After the end of his mandate in the European Parliament in 1999, he no longer held any political function. In the presidential election campaign in 2002, however, he supported the PRG candidate Christiane Taubira . In 2008 he was appointed to the Conseil d'État , but left two years later to work as a lawyer in Mayotte.

Web links

• Entry on Jean-François Hory in the database of Members of the European Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jean-François Hory, 1949 - 2017. Base de données des députés français depuis 1789.
2. ^ ^{A b} Jean-François Hory, ancien patron des radicaux de gauche. In: Le Bien Public , December 30, 2017.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Christopher Vadot: Tapie de A à Z. Albin Michel, 1995.
4. ↑ Florian Hartleb: Right and left populism. A case study based on the Schill Party and PDS. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, p. 21.
5. ^ ^{A b c} Gisela Müller-Brandeck-Bocquet, Patrick Moreau: France. A political geography, contributions to politics and contemporary history. 2nd edition, Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2000, p. 105.
6. ^ Entry on Jean-François Hory in the European Parliament 's database of representatives
7. ↑ "Décès de Jean-François Hory, ancien patron des radicaux de gauche" ( Memento of the original of December 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Liberation , December 28, 2017 (fr.)  
8. ↑ David Ponchelet: Décès de Jean-François Hory, ex-député de Mayotte, qui fut proche de Christiane Taubira. France Info, December 28, 2017.