Joël Le Theule
Joël Le Theule (born March 22, 1930 in Sablé-sur-Sarthe , Département Sarthe , † December 14, 1980 in Saint-Brice , Département Mayenne ) was a French politician of the Gaullist parties Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR), Union Démocratique du Travail (UDT), the Démocrates pour la Ve Republique Union (UDR), Union pour la défense de la République (UDR), and most recently of the Rally for the Republic (RPR), the number of years the Sarthe department as a deputy in the National Assembly took and 1968 Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories (Ministre des départements et territoires d'Outre-mer) , 1968 to 1969 State Secretary for Information (Secrétaire d'Etat à l'information) , 1978 to 1980 Minister of Transport (Ministre des transports) and from On October 2, 1980 he was Minister of Defense (Ministre de la défense) in the Barre III cabinet until his death .
Life
Geography teacher and election to the National Assembly in 1958
Le Theule, whose father was director of a sawmill in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, completed his education at a private school in Angers and began studying geography at the University of Angers and then at the University of Paris after completing his baccalaureate . After completing his studies, in 1955 he took up a position as a teacher of geography and history at the Prytanée national militaire military school housed in the Collège Henri-IV de La Flèche , which prepared cadets for admission to the Saint-Cyr military school .
After Le Theule was proposed for the Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR) in the constituency of the Département Sarthe IV for the elections to the National Assembly on November 23 and 30, 1958, at the suggestion of Jean-Yves Chapalain , Senator and Mayor of Le Mans he is teaching. In doing so, he competed with the leader of the Independents and Peasants and then MP for the constituency, Paul Goussu , who died in mid-October 1958. In the election campaign he presented himself as a new man who had not previously worked in any party and wanted to support Charles de Gaulle in his program of national renewal. He spoke out in favor of general, simultaneous and controlled disarmament in order to ensure peaceful between East and West. He also advocated the need to secure social progress and promote the workforce in a climate of national reconciliation.
In the election (it was the first election of a national assembly in the Fifth French Republic ) the candidate of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO) and former Foreign Minister Christian Pineau was his main opponent. In the election, Le Theule received 38.5 percent in the first ballot; the candidate of the Mouvement republicain populaire (MRP), Jacques Maury , received 26.7 percent and Pineau only 14.5 percent of the vote. The young Gaullist was ahead in four of the five cantons in the constituency and achieved his best result in his native Sablé-sur-Sarthe with 52.6 percent. In the second round of voting on November 30, 1958, he was elected member of the National Assembly with 72.9 percent of the vote; he misplaced Robert Jarry ( Parti communiste français (PCF), 14.2 percent) and Pineau (12.9 percent).
Election period 1958 to 1962
Youngest member of the National Assembly and defense specialist
At the age of 28, Le Theule was the youngest member of the First National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. He joined the parliamentary group of the UNR and became a member of the Committee on National Defense and the Armed Forces (Commission de la défense nationale et des forces armées) . He soon earned a reputation as a pre-eminent defense expert and presented several bills on the subject.
In 1960 he was rapporteur for a bill dealing with a program for the development of national units for nuclear deterrence and the modernization of the equipment of the conventional armed forces . He expressed regret on behalf of the Defense Committee that the Navy were not included in the plans for the units of the nuclear deterrent, as the view of the United States and Soviet Union nuclear-powered submarines formed the core of the nuclear forces, while France, for technical reasons only for 1965 construction nuclear-powered submarines. He criticized the budget policy for the army and demanded more money for the modernization of the equipment of the land forces.
On November 8, 1961, at a public session of the National Assembly, he pointed out the military importance of the Sahara for France, in particular with regard to Algeria's self-determination . As rapporteur for the defense budget of the land forces in 1961 and 1962, he campaigned for the reorganization of this branch of the armed forces. He was of the opinion that the expenditures and activities of the armed forces were part of the national economy, and was therefore surprised by the failure to consider defense issues in so-called Plan IV. In a parliamentary session on May 24, 1962, he also pointed out that around 45 percent of research expenditures in 1959 were military-related, and thus the interpretation of the term “for military purposes” had a decisive influence on the level of employment.
Support the Gaullist governments
In addition to his preoccupation with defense policy issues, he also dealt with numerous other questions, such as an inquiry to Minister of Labor Paul Bacon on November 18, 1960 about the lockout of 8,500 employees in automobile production at the Renault Le Mans plant .
During his first legislative term in the National Assembly, he mostly followed the voting behavior of the Gaullists, such as the vote on Prime Minister Michel Debre's government program on January 16, 1959 and the debate on his statement on government policy on December 23, 1959. Voted on the same day he also for the law on the reform of the financing of private educational institutions, on February 2, 1960 for the introduction of special rights for government troops during the week of the barricades in Algeria and also for the adoption of the government program of Debre's successor Georges Pompidou on April 27, 1962. Furthermore He voted on July 5, 1962 for the lifting of the immunity of the former Prime Minister Georges Bidault , who as chairman of the Organization de l'armée secrète (OAS) strongly opposed the independence of Algeria accepted by de Gaulle . On October 2, 1962, he refused to support a motion of no confidence in the overthrow of the Pompidou government.
Election period 1962 to 1967
Mayor, re-elected MP in 1962 and support for government policy
Le Theule, who had also been mayor of his hometown Sablé-sur-Sarthe since 1959 , was one of de Gaulle's supporters in the referendum on the direct election of the state president (Référendum français sur l'élection au suffrage universel du président de la République) . 5 percent of those eligible to vote voted for direct elections from 1965 onwards .
In the subsequent election to the National Assembly, he was elected MP for a further term in the first ballot with a clear majority of 65.9 percent, and was again the youngest member of parliament.
During his second term in parliament, Le Theule largely supported the policies of the Pompidou government and voted, among other things, on June 13, 1963 for the ratification of the Élysée Treaty , which was supposed to strengthen Franco-German relations . In addition, he supported on July 26, 1963 a bill for the guidelines for the exercise of rights in the public service and on June 17, 1964 a bill to reform the local electoral law. On December 9, 1966, in a question to the Minister of Agriculture (Ministre de l'Agriculture), he made the concerns about the development of the milk price clear for the voters of his constituency .
Work in the Defense Committee and proposals for reforming the armed forces
After his re-election in 1962, he was again a member of the Committee on National Defense and the Armed Forces, and finally in April 1966, Vice-Chairman of that committee. As rapporteur for the defense budget, he defended numerous bills in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967 at a time when France was trying to rethink and reorient its defense policy.
One of the main problems at the time was the excess of officers. The end of the hostilities in the Algerian War and the modernization of military equipment made the need for a law to modernize military staffing necessary, with 25,411 officers in active service on September 1, 1963. On December 5, 1963, he asked in a speech to parliament that retired officers should join the Ministry of Education (Ministère de l'Education nationale) . He later realized that a professional reorientation of people who, like officers, came from an authoritarian professional environment should only take place on a voluntary basis. He suggested that after a review of the personnel files by the Defense and Education Ministries, officers should be given a two-year probationary period in an educational institution and then decided on further professional use as officers or teachers. In his view, the necessary reduction in the number of officers would ultimately also lead to an upgrading of the officer's profession. The concerns expressed by the Ministry of Defense about the reduction of the officer corps were regretted by him at a meeting of the National Assembly on November 6, 1964 on behalf of the Defense Committee.
In the spring of 1965, Le Theule was rapporteur for a draft law that was supposed to supplement military service with a national service that also had civil components: technical assistance and cooperation. He was also rapporteur on bills introducing technical officers in the army and air force (December 1964), reforming the status of sergeants and officers in the music corps (November 1965) and the body of the General Controller of the Armed Forces (Contrôleur général des armées) (April 1966).
Electoral term 1967 to 1968
Successful election in the constituency of Sarthe IV and chairman of the defense committee
In the elections to the National Assembly on March 5, 1967, Le Theule ran for re-election for the UDR (Union des Démocrates pour la Ve République) and was re-elected in the first ballot with 52.6 percent of the votes in the constituency of the Sarthe IV department . The above-average election results in the cantons of La Suze-sur-Sarthe (59.2 percent), Brûlon (66.2 percent), Loué (69.1 percent) and Sablé-sur-Sarthe (70.5 percent) were determined by the Results minimized in the urban canton of Le Mans II, in which he received only 47.3 percent. The office of mayor of Le Mans, who had been Le Theules' patron, the Gaullist Jean-Yves Chapalain, since 1947, was taken over in 1965 by the Center démocrate politician Jacques Maury, who was one of his opponents in 1958. The communist Robert Jarry, who had also run against him in the elections in November 1958 and November 1962, received 30.8 percent of the vote in the canton of Le Mans II.
The election result for Le Theules was essentially his personal success: The constituency of Sarthe IV was less conservative than the two constituencies of Sarthe I and Sarthe V, in which Charles de Gaulle received 54.3 percent of the vote in the second round of the 1965 presidential election, and thus only slightly less than the national average received of 55.2 percent.
Shortly after the election, he became chairman of the Committee on National Defense and the Armed Forces on April 6, 1967, and was thus instrumental in the debates on military issues.
National service reform
On June 1, 1967, he presented a bill which provided for a reduction in the national service from fifteen to twelve months, and which was discussed on November 15, 1967 in the National Assembly.
He saw the advantages of a selective selection in favor of longer service on the one hand, as well as an early discharge of others, whereby an optimal solution could hardly be found. On the other hand, he stated that every country had to solve its problems on the basis of its own historical, psychological, financial, political or military development. He found that since the law supplementing military service with a national service was passed in 1965, the proportion of young people interested in cooperative or technical assistance service has remained low. As a result, traditional military service remained practically the national service for the overwhelming majority of young French people. In the period that followed, the number of exceptions initially remained low. After an increase in commitments, Le Theule proposed reducing the length of service to just 14 months and suspending the intended reduction to twelve months until late 1968 or mid-1969. The bill was then adopted.
On the following November 16, 1967, a bill was discussed that lowered the age of entry into the armed forces to 17 years of age.
Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories in the Pompidou Cabinet
After President Charles de Gaulle announced the dissolution of parliament on May 30, 1968 , Georges Pompidou, who had been Prime Minister since spring 1962, restructured his cabinet on May 31, 1968 . Together with Yvon Morandat , who became State Secretary for Employment, and the new State Secretary for Equipment, Philippe Dechartre , he appointed two left- wing bogeymen to his government.
The 38-year-old Le Theule, who had also been a member of the General Council of the Canton of Sablé-sur-Sarthe since September 1967 , was appointed and took over by Pompidou as Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories (Ministre des départements et territoires d'Outre-mer) thus a government office for the first time. He also held this office in the cabinet of Maurice Couve de Murville , who succeeded Pompidou as Prime Minister on June 10, 1968, before the ministerial office was abolished a month later on July 10, 1968.
Re-elected in 1968 and State Secretary for Information
In the elections to the National Assembly on June 23, 1968, re-elected member of the National Assembly with 63.5 percent.
After the dissolution of his previous ministerial office, Prime Minister Couve de Murville appointed him on July 10, 1968 as the successor to Yves Guéna as State Secretary for Information (Secrétaire d'Etat à l'information) in his cabinet. His mandate was then taken over by his representative René Pailler . The information office, which was necessary from the point of view of the opposition and individual liberal Gaullists, was established after the unrest in May 1968 .
The term of office of Le Theule also coincided with the processing of the so-called Marković affair in autumn 1968. The former Prime Minister Pompidou came under suspicion of maintaining contacts with the underworld. Stevan Marković was a former bodyguard of popular actor Alain Delon and was found murdered in a garbage dump. In the course of the investigation, Pompidou's wife, Claude, was attempted to be compromised by police questioning spreading rumors that there were photos of them showing group sex orgies. Deeply hurt by this dishonorable gossip, Pompidou turned to the Élysée and complained that he had not been warned and that no denials were given. However, his complaint was met with little understanding there. This was the moment that finally shattered the relationship between Pompidou and his political foster father de Gaulle. Pompidou blamed Le Theule for not preventing him from being named in the investigation report.
After Pompidou was elected as de Gaulle's successor as President in the presidential elections of June 1 and 15, 1969 , Le Theule resigned as State Secretary for Information on June 20, 1969.
Election period 1969 to 1973
Re-election in the constituency of Sarthe IV and engagement in the defense committee
After his representative Pailler had resigned the parliamentary mandate, Le Theule was re-elected member of the National Assembly in a by-election on October 19, 1969 in the constituency of Sarthe IV with 64.3 percent in the first ballot.
He joined the parliamentary group of the Union pour la défense de la République (UDR), but was unable to resume the role of chairman of the Committee on National Defense and the Armed Forces, as Alexandre Sanguinetti now held it. However, he continued to be one of the most prominent defense experts in the National Assembly and, in 1971, 1972 and 1973, rapporteur on defense spending at the Ministry of Defense.
National service reform
At the beginning of 1970 he was one of the "fathers" of the reform of the national service. In the debate of June 9, 1970, the focus was on reducing the length of service to twelve months, during which he gave the opening speech and referred to the discussions between Parliament and the government in recent years. The necessity of realigning the National Service became particularly clear after the passing of the Law on Vandalism (Loi anticasseurs), which it supported, on June 4, 1970 and discussed for more than six hours in the Council of Ministers. The reform was intended to reduce the exemptions favored by regions such as the west, center, south-west as well as around Lyon and the Alps, in order to create more equality with regard to the whereabouts of the service providers. He also supported a controversial regulation according to which anyone who had completed his military service could be given the right to vote .
Less than a year later, the National Service Act (Code du Service National) was passed and contained many of the proposals made by Le Theule in June 1970. In the period that followed, the number of conscientious objectors decreased. In addition, at the meeting of April 6, 1971, as rapporteur, he stated that violations of general conscription were now easier to control.
In the spring of 1972 it was his task again as rapporteur for the Defense Committee to present a draft law for general military status. In collaboration with the former Prime Minister and then Defense Minister Michel Debré, he worked out the legal texts and the corresponding regulations for the reform of everyday military life. At the meeting of May 2, 1972, he also recognized the need for the Defense Committee to examine the financing of these innovations.
Engagement in other political issues
In addition, Le Theule was also involved in numerous other political issues, such as on April 25, 1972 in the debate on the law on the creation and organization of regions , which was rejected by the Parti Communiste. The law gave the regions the status of a legal entity under public law (Établissement public) . On October 15, 1970 and May 24, 1972, he also voted for the general government statements by Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas .
Because of his experience in the Couve de Murville government, he became press officer in the UDR National Secretariat in October 1972.
1973 to 1978 legislative term
Re-election in the first ballot in 1973 and National Secretary of the UDR
In the elections of March 4, 1973, Le Theule was again elected member of the National Assembly in the first ballot and this time received 51.4 percent of the vote in the constituency of Sarthe IV . However, he left the Defense Committee and instead became a member of the Committee on Finance, Economics and Planning in 1973 (Commission des Finances, de l'économie générale et du Plan) .
In the 1973-1978 electoral term, he spoke on a wide variety of subjects, showing that he was not just a defense policy expert.
In the debate on the government declaration by Prime Minister Pierre Messmer on April 11, 1973, which he supported, he demanded that the National Service, which was restricted after the experience of the student movement and the unrest in the early 1970s under the Vandal Act, should be adapted to the needs of young people. He made it clear that the youth should not only be limited to the students, but also include young farmers, young workers and even more young people with an apprenticeship, vocational school qualification or a lower education. He called on the government to be ready to reform the schools and, in particular, to realign the “philosophy” in public schools. In this context, he criticized a minority of teachers who used school and students as a political means of action.
In addition, he called for a reorientation of secularism , not only in the function of the churches, but also in the function of political activities that were excluded from secondary education. This view was not only supported by numerous conservatives , but was also welcomed by a large majority in the National Assembly.
In May 1973 Le Theule became national secretary of the Union des démocrates pour la République (UDR). During a debate on October 16, 1973, he advocated a reduction in the presidential term from seven to five years.
Political views, support for Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and joining the RPR
After Marceau Long became chairman of the board of the public service broadcaster ORTF ( Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française ) on November 9, 1973 , he welcomed this and saw in it the possibility of a rapprochement and cooperation between the ORTF and the film industry .
During the second round of the presidential election in May 1974 , he supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing because of his announced liberal reforms. At that time he spoke out on 10 October 1974 against the extension of the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Council ( Conseil Constitutionnel ) and on 28 November 1974 against the legalization of abortion from. On the other hand, on June 4, 1975, he spoke in favor of reforming divorce law and, on June 21, 1977, for a general election of the members of the European Parliament instead of sending delegates from the parliaments of the member states.
After the resignation of Prime Minister Jacques Chirac on August 25, 1976 and the establishment of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) in December 1976, Le Theule was one of the members of this new group, alongside Robert Boulin and Alain Peyrefitte , who criticized the previous Prime Minister Chirac President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing disapproved.
In June 1977 he also acted as rapporteur for a law on the control of economic concentration, the fight against illegal agreements and the abuse of a dominant position.
Le Theule, who continued to be mayor of his native city, was also rapporteur for the defense budget on the Finance Committee between 1974 and 1978. In November 1977 he severely criticized Defense Minister Yvon Bourges and accused him, along with other members of the parliamentary majority such as Raoul Honnet , André Fanton and Michel de Bennetot , of weakening the navy and, through the defense planning for the years 1977 to 1982, the ability to deter nuclear weapons would undermine. At the meeting of November 9, 1977, he also criticized the minister for neglecting his ministry's duty to provide information to the members of the National Assembly.
Election period 1978 to 1980
Re-election in the first round and Minister of Transport in the Barre cabinet
In the parliamentary elections in March 1978, Le Theule, who remained a member of the General Council of the canton of Sable-sur-Sarthe, was the only candidate from the majority faction in the constituency of Sarthe IV . Although Le Mans, which partly belongs to his constituency, has had a communist mayor since March 1977 with Robert Jarry, his opponent in the elections in 1958, 1962 and 1967, he was elected 55.4 percent of the vote in the first ballot.
Shortly after the election, on April 5, 1978, Le Theule was appointed Minister of Transport (Ministre des Transports) in his first cabinet by Prime Minister Raymond Barre and thus took over a government office for the first time in almost ten years. As ten years ago, his mandate was again taken over by René Pailler as his representative.
As transport minister he initiated an important reform of the service of his ministry and in particular transformed the previous general secretariat for the merchant navy into a general directorate. He also tried to improve relations between the state and state transport companies such as Air France , Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CMG) through program contracts. When the air traffic controllers went on strike in the summer of 1978 , he rejected it and saw it as “blackmail” against the other Air France employees. During the fishermen's strike in 1980 he called for free access to the ports and called on the navy to guarantee this in the event of Le Havre .
Defense Minister in the Barre Cabinet
This tough attitude towards the fishermen and his recognized expertise led to Le Theule being appointed Minister of Defense (Ministre de la Défense) by Prime Minister Barre on October 2, 1980 as part of a cabinet reshuffle . He succeeded Yvon Bourges, who had resigned to take a seat as senator for the Ille-et-Vilaine department . His own successor as Transport Minister was then Daniel Hoeffel , previous State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Families.
A few weeks after taking office, Le Theule suffered a myocardial infarction during a visit by his cabinet colleague, Minister for Universities Alice Saunier-Seïté , to Sablé-sur-Sarthe on December 14, 1980 at the age of only 50, which resulted in his death. After his death he was honored not only by Prime Minister Barre as a great servant of the state, but also by the defense policy expert of the Parti Socialiste, Charles Hernu .
A few months after his death, in June 1981 his long-time colleague and political foster son, who later became Prime Minister François Fillon , was elected Member of the National Assembly in the constituency of Sarthe IV .
After his death, a bridge and the Center technique de conservation Joël-le-Theule were named in his place of birth Sablé-sur-Sarthe .
Web links
- Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly
- Biography (freely accessible beginning of the online version in the Munzinger archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ French Usine Renault ACI du Mans
- ^ Les secrets sur la jeunesse de François Fillon. Les drames et les blessures . In: L'Express of November 14, 2007
- ↑ Quand Rachida Dati poignarde Francois Fillon dans le dos sans se soucier de la vérité . In: Le Plus of November 21, 2011
- ↑ Le Center technique de conservation Joël-le-Theule (Sablé-sur-Sarthe) (Homepage of the Bibliothèque nationale de France ), page accessed on September 17, 2014
Charles de Gaulle (National Defense) and Pierre Guillaumat (Armies) | Pierre Guillaumat | Pierre Messmer | Michel Debré | Robert Galley | Jacques Soufflet | Yvon Bourges | Joël Le Theule | Robert Galley | Charles Hernu | Paul Quilès | André Giraud | Jean-Pierre Chevènement | Pierre Joxe | François Léotard | Charles Millon | Alain Richard | Michèle Alliot-Marie | Hervé Morin | Alain Juppé | Gérard Longuet | Jean-Yves Le Drian | Sylvie Goulard | Florence Parly
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Le Theule, Joël |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French politician, member of the National Assembly |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sablé-sur-Sarthe , Sarthe department |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 14, 1980 |
| Place of death | Saint-Brice , Mayenne department |