Joseph Fontanet

Joseph Fontanet (born February 9, 1921 in Frontenex in Savoy , † February 2, 1980 in Paris ) was French minister several times .

Fontanet studied law and received a doctorate from the School of Higher Commercial Studies. During the Second World War he joined the Free French Armed Forces and took part with them on the landing in Provence in 1944 and in the fight in Germany. After the war he became mayor of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville in 1951 and politically joined the Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP) party , of which he became general secretary. Until 1974 he was a member of the National Assembly as MP for Savoie for almost 20 years . In 1959, he became State Secretary for Industry and Trade in the first cabinet of the Fifth Republic under Michel Debré , but gave up the office that same year. On April 14, 1962, he became Minister of Public Health and Population under Georges Pompidou , but resigned on May 16, together with the other ministers of the MRP, in protest against de Gaulle's European policy. On June 20, 1969, he was again Minister, this time for the Department of Labor, Employment and Population under Jacques Chaban-Delmas . He held the office until July 5, 1972, when Chaban-Delmas was replaced by Pierre Messmer and Fontanes moved to the post of Minister for National Education. After the end of his reign on May 27, 1974, he became head of J'informe magazine .

On February 1, 1980, he was the victim of a hitherto unsolved murder. A bullet struck him in the shoulder in front of his house.

Web links

• Literature by and about Joseph Fontanet in the catalog of the German National Library