Robert Buron

Robert Buron

Robert Albert Gaston Buron (born February 27, 1910 in the 6th arrondissement , Paris ; † April 28, 1973 in the 13th arrondissement , Paris) was a French politician of the Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP) and most recently the Parti socialiste (PS), the between 1946 and 1958 was a member of the National Assembly , State Secretary and several times Minister of various departments.

Life

Studies, World War II and member of the Resistance

Buron, son of a printer's owner and great-grandson of the poet Léon-Louis Buron , began studying law at the University of Paris after attending the famous Lycée Henri IV . He graduated with honors from his studies, which he temporarily had to interrupt because of tuberculosis . He then began postgraduate studies at the private university École libre des sciences politiques, founded by Émile Boutmy in 1872 . In 1933 he began his professional career and was initially deputy head of the study department of the Paris Chamber of Commerce before he was secretary general of the Association of Chocolate Manufacturers (Syndicat des Chocolatiers) between 1937 and 1939 . In 1938 he received his doctorate in law with a dissertation on the subject of Les obligations du trustee en droit anglais . His Christian democratic conviction led him to join the Parti démocrate populaire (PDP) as a member during this time .

After the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht , Buron became General Secretary of the Organizing Committee of the Film Industry. As an opponent of the Vichy regime , he joined the resistance movement Résistance , in which he was involved in a Christian democratic group. He was also a member of the General Committee for Studies of the National Council of Resistance CNR ( Conseil national de la Résistance ) and editor of the Christian Democratic magazine Cahiers du Travaillisme français . For his services in the resistance movement, he was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance .

After the liberation of Paris in August 1944, administrative director of the television station Radiodiffusion Française Télévision Française . He was also the founder and editor of Carrefour magazine , whose co-editor he remained until 1947. He also held a professorship at the École Nouvelle d'Organisation Économique et Sociale (ENOES) and at the same time became General Director of the news channel Gaumont Actualités in 1949 .

Fourth French Republic

Member of the Constituent Assemblies

In addition to his professional career, Buron was one of the founders of the Mouvement républicain populaire (MRP) in 1944, along with Pierre-Henri Teitgen , Georges Bidault and other resistance fighters from the ranks of the Parti démocrate populaire . In this gathering party, which united Christian and socialist currents, he became a member of the board. At the meeting of the MRP in Mayenne in the summer of 1945 he decided to be a candidate for elections to the first National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale Constituent Assembly) and was supported by the uncle of his wife, Simon Faligant, who is also a member of the General Council of the Mayenne was , supported. During the election campaign in the Mayenne department, in which four seats were to be awarded, he was nicknamed Buron des Burettes because of his advocacy for administrative staff . He achieved the best result with 39,629 out of 124,109 votes cast out of 160,530 eligible voters and thus became a member of the first constituent assembly.

The three other mandates went to Information Minister Jacques Soustelle , who was first on a list of the Union républicaine and received 25,022 votes, to another candidate from the MRP, who received 22,381 votes, and the fourth seat to a candidate from the Parti communiste français (PCF). After his election, he became a member of the Committee on Finance and Budgetary Control (Commission des Finances et du Contrôle Budgétaire) and the Committee on Press, Radio and Cinema (Commission de la Presse, de la radio et du cinéma) . It was in these functions that he spoke out against nationalization during the debates in the spring of 1946 .

In the elections for the second National Constituent Assembly on June 2, 1946, Buron ran again for the MRP in the Mayenne department. 128,994 of the 159,108 eligible voters took part in the elections, with the list of the MRP, which received 41,719 votes, with Robert Buron and François Pinçon, two of the four MPs. The other two mandates fell on the Parti républicain de la liberté (PRL) with 35,699 votes and the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO) with 24,816 votes. He was subsequently a member of the Committees for Finance and Budgetary Control as well as for Press, Broadcasting and Cinema.

Elected member of the National Assembly in 1946 and State Secretary

In the elections for the first National Assembly of the Fourth Republic , which took place on November 10, 1946 , 126,660 of the 158,340 eligible voters took part. Once again, the MRP was in the lead in the Mayenne department and was able to provide two MPs with Buron and Pincon with 42,956 votes, while the PRL with 30,480 votes and the SFIO with 22,416 votes each received a mandate. After Pincon resigned in March 1948, Pierre Elain took over as a member of the National Assembly.

After his return to the Palais Bourbon , Buron was again a member of the Committee on Finance and Budgetary Control on December 4, 1946, and at the same time on July 15, 1947 was appointed judge at the Supreme Court (Haute Cour de justice) , two-thirds of whom were MPs and one third consisted of other people. Furthermore, he was vice-chairman of the parliamentary group of the MRP and took part in numerous debates on economic and social issues, but also in debates on cinema, radio and television. In the spring of 1949, however, he suffered a defeat in the cantonal elections. As a representative of France, he took part in the economic conferences in Havana in 1948 and in Rome in 1949 .

On October 29, 1949, Buron was appointed Secretary of State for Economics in the Ministry of Finance and Economics by Prime Minister Georges Bidault and held this position until August 11, 1951 in the third Bidault government , in the second government of Prime Minister Henri Queuille , the first Cabinet of Prime Minister René Pleven and the third Queuille government . In this capacity he was also a deputy member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe .

Re-elected in 1951 and Minister of Information

In the elections of June 17, 1951, Buron ran for the MRP again in the Mayenne department, this time 122,693 of the 154,708 eligible voters cast their vote. Again, the MRP was ahead and was able to win two of the four mandates: Buron with 53,141 votes was even ahead of the result of the MRP list, which received 48,953 votes. In the election campaign he highlighted the “double opposition ” of the MRP, on the one hand against the systematic sabotage of parliamentary institutions by the PCF, and on the other hand against those who did not agree with anything. The other two parliamentary seats that were to be allocated in the département went to the Rassemblement du peuple français (RPF), which won 34,949 votes.

On August 11, 1951, Buron was appointed Minister of Information (Ministre de l'Information) in his second government by Prime Minister René Pleven . He was also elected a member of the General Council of the Canton of Villaines-la-Juhel in 1951 and was a member of this until 1970.

Economics Minister

Subsequently, Prime Minister Edgar Faure appointed him Minister of Economics (Ministre des Affaires Economiques) in his first government on January 20, 1952 and held this ministerial office until March 8, 1952. After leaving the government, he became a deputy member of the parliamentary immunity committee (Commission des immunités parlementaires) .

On January 8, 1953, Buron was appointed by Prime Minister René Mayer in his cabinet and again held the office of Minister of Economics until June 28, 1953. In this role he also saw himself as Minister for Consumers, especially for the protection of housewives. At the same time, he became mayor of Villaines-la-Juhel in 1953 and held this office until 1970. After leaving the government, he first became a member of the Committee for National Education (Commission de l'éducation nationale) on July 21, 1953 . January 1954 member of the Commission des finances .

Buron was against the participation of the MRP in the first and second government of Prime Minister Joseph Laniel from June 28, 1953 to June 19, 1954. This was expressed, among other things, in the fact that on October 30, 1953 he opposed his faction against politics Laniels agreed in the Indochina War .

Minister for Overseas Territories and Minister of Finance

The tension within the MRP became clear again when Buron on June 19, 1954 accepted the appointment to the government of Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France , who appointed him Minister for the Overseas Territories (Ministre de la France d'Outre-Mer) . He remained in this ministerial post until January 20, 1955 and then took over the post of Minister of Finance, Economics and Planning (Ministre des Finances, des Affaires Economiques et du Plan) from Edgar Faure as part of a government reshuffle , while Jean-Jacques Juglas took him over replaced in the office of Minister for Overseas Territories. Buron held the office of Minister of Finance, Economics and Planning until February 23, 1955. Although the establishment of a European Defense Community (EDC), which he supported, failed in 1954, he remained a minister in the Mendès France government to promote the development of the overseas territories.

After the National Council of the MRP sharply criticized the government of Mendès France, Buron intended to resign from the party. On February 4, 1955, he expressed confidence in the government against the MRP faction. After the end of Prime Minister Mendès France's term of office, he remained a member of the MRP, but took an increasingly critical position.

Re-elected in 1956

In the elections of June 2, 1956, Robert Buron found himself in a difficult situation, as he had to run not only against candidates from the left and right , but also against the Poujadist movement, a populist political current of petty-bourgeois protest. During the election campaign, he highlighted the MRP list as the political center that could best represent the interests of the Mayenne department. As a result, Buron became an enemy for the right and left candidates and especially for the communist PCF in the election campaign in this department. An electoral alliance between SFIO and Parti radical (PR) was entered into.

This time, 129,738 of the 158,091 eligible voters took part in the election, in which the MRP list received 36,317 votes, but this time, with Buron, it was only able to provide one MP. The Center national des indépendants (CNI) received the second seat with 31,800 votes, while the third mandate went to the Poujadist Union et de Fraternité Française , which won 25,935 votes. The fourth mandate to be awarded in this department fell to the SFIO, which received 11,132 votes.

After his return to the Palais Bourbon, Buron was on January 31, 1956 both a member of the press committee and a member of the committee for the overseas territories (Commission des Territoires d'outre-mer) . On April 5, 1956, he was appointed a member of the Audit and Budget Committee (Commission des comptes et des budgets économiques de la Nation) and in June 1956 as President of the National Production Council. Most recently he was on July 2, 1957 a member of the Committee on Justice and Legislation (Commission de la justice et de législation) .

Attitude in the Algerian war and minister in de Gaulle's third cabinet

Monument ( Émile Gilioli ) to Robert Buron in the garden of Laval Castle .

During this third legislative period he took part in numerous debates, such as the beginning of June 1956 on the Algerian war , underlining the need for economic involvement while rejecting the defense of an outdated colonialism . Instead, a mission called for French help for Africa to become part of a modern world. He made numerous trips to overseas territory and did not take part in the confidence vote of the government of Prime Minister Guy Mollet on the Algerian policy on March 27, 1957 .

In addition to Robert Schuman , René Pleven , Maurice Schumann , Alain Savary , André Armengaud , Paul Alduy , François Giacobbi , Pascal Arighi , Edgard Pisani and Léo Hamon, Buron belonged to a French parliamentary group that, along with a parliamentary group from the Federal Republic of Germany , belonged to Fritz Hellwig , Peter Jacobs , Georg Kahn-Ackermann , Georg Kliesing , Hermann Kopf , Heinz Kühn , Erich Mende , Ludwig Metzger and Walter Scheel , discussed topics such as European security, disarmament and the reunification of Germany.

On May 12, 1957, he was a member of the delegation to the Economic Conference for Latin America. In the vote on the appointment of the government of Prime Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury on 13 June 1957 Buron recommended to agree to the MRP Group no, while Georges Bidault recommended the approval. Ultimately, the MRP faction decided to abstain from the election of the government.

To vote on the subsequent government of Prime Minister Felix Gaillard on November 5, 1957, he did not take part, not on the renewal of military forces in Algeria having to vote ', and was also the debate after the bombing of the Tunisian city of Sakiet Sidi Youssef on far away from the border with Algeria on February 8, 1958. On February 21, 1958, Buron visited General Charles de Gaulle in his Paris office to present his idea of ​​forming the Union of Republicans, which he had already described in the weekly Témoignage Chrétien earlier this year . On April 20, 1958, he was re-elected to the General Council of the Canton of Villaines-la-Juhel, and during the election campaign he advocated mediation in the Algerian War.

On June 9, 1958, Buron was appointed by Prime Minister de Gaulle in his third cabinet and took over the office of Minister for Public Works, Transport and Tourism (Ministre des Travaux publics, des Transports et du Tourisme) . On January 7, 1959, the electrified Longueau – Paris-Nord section of the Paris – Lille railway was officially commissioned during his tenure .

Fifth Republic

Member of the National Assembly and Minister

In the elections for the first National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic, founded on October 5, 1958, on November 30, 1958, Buron ran for the electoral alliance Républicains populaires et center démocratique , to which the MRP also belonged. He was re-elected a member of the National Assembly in the first constituency of the Mayenne department.

On January 8, 1959, he was appointed by Prime Minister Michel Debré as Minister for Public Works and Transport (Ministre des travaux publics et des transports) in his cabinet and then resigned his mandate in the National Assembly on February 8, 1959. He held this ministerial office until the end of Debre's term on April 16, 1962. In 1959 he entrusted the head of the General Commissariat for Tourism (Commissariat Général au Tourisme) , Jean Santeny, with the creation of a service to encourage the French population to decorate their towns, villages, houses and farms. The National Council for the Flowered Cities and Villages CNVVF ( Conseil national des villes et villages fleuris ) emerged from this service in 1972 . Due to the developments in the government's Africa policy, he also initiated decisions on the future of civil aviation, such as the expansion of Nice Airport . During this time included not only the Minister of State and Minister of Algeria Affairs Louis Joxe and other of the signatories of the 18 March 1962 agreements of Evian , where between France and the National Liberation Front of Algeria FLN (National Front de Libération) with the proclamation of a truce the Algerian war ended on March 19, 1962.

He also held the post of Minister for Public Works and Transport in the subsequent first government of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou from April 16, 1962 until his resignation on May 16, 1962. His successor in this ministerial office was then Roger Dusseaulx , the previous Minister Associate to the Prime Minister for relations with Parliament.

Work for the OECD and mayor of Laval

After leaving the government, Buron became President of the Center for Development of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1962 and remained in this position until 1966.

Robert Buron's bust on November 11th in Laval

He was also chairman of the expansion committee of the Mayenne department from 1963 to 1970 and, in 1964, president of the École Nouvelle d'Organisation Économique et Sociale . After the party congress of the Parti socialiste (PS) in Épinay-sur-Seine , Buron joined the PS. Most recently he acted as the successor of the former Senator Francis Le Basser from 1971 until his electoral defeat shortly before his death in 1973 as Mayor of Laval . His successor as mayor was André Pinçon , who was also a member of the National Assembly between 1986 and 1988.

His daughter Martine Buron emerged from his marriage to Marie-Louise “Melle” Trouillard on July 12, 1938. She was a member of the European Parliament between 1984 and 1994 and represented the Parti socialiste there.

The Lycée Robert Buron in Laval was named in his honor.

Publications

• Read obligations du trustee en droit anglais. Dissertation . 1938.
• Cahiers du travaillisme français. 1944.
• with Pierre Brisset : Les Méfaits économiques et moraux des timbres-primes: devant l'pinion, le Conseil économique et l'Assemblée nationale. 1950.
• with Rodolphe Rubattel : Chambre de commerce suisse en France. Annuaire franco-suisse: 1951–1952. 1951.
• with Pierre Badin : Aux sources de la productivité américaine: premier bilan des missions françaises. 1953.
• with Jean-Marie De Lattre : L'Entreprise dans l'économie moderne américaine: les raisons de son succès. 1953.
• Carnets politiques de la guerre d'Algérie: par un signataire des accords d'Évian. 1955.
• Les Pays sous-développés. 1958.
• Dynamisme des États-Unis, recueil d'articles parus dans la presse, 1950–1957. 1963.
• Le plus beau des métiers. 1963.
• Carnets politiques de la guerre d'Algérie: par un signataire des accords d'Évian. 1965.
• Decision-making in the development field. 1966.
• Les dernières années de la IVe République, carnets politiques. 1968.
• with Jean Offredo : Demain la politique, réflexions pour une autre société. 1970.
• Pourquoi je suis de nouveau candidat? 1972.
• with Jean Offredo: Par goût de la vie. 1973.
• La Mayenne et moi ou de la démocratie chrétienne au socialisme. posthumously. 1978.

Background literature

• Marcel Launay: Robert Buron. Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7010-1276-7 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Buron  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly
• French Ministeries (rulers.org)
• Curriculum vitae on the homepage of the Center des Archives Économiques et Financières
• Proof of publication in Google Books

Individual evidence

1. ^ Philip Nord: France's New Deal: From the Thirties to the Postwar Era , 2012, ISBN 978-1-4008-3496-9 , p. 159 u. a.
2. ↑ Rebecca Pulju: Women and Mass Consumer Society in Postwar France , 2011, ISBN 978-1-107-00135-0 , p. 1.
3. ^ Herbert Elzer: Political parties, public, culture , 1997, ISBN 3-11-097266-2 , p. 445.
4. ↑ Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly (1st legislative period)
5. ↑ Defense and Economy , 1959, p. 88.
6. ↑ Frank Renken: France in the Shadow of the Algerian War: the Fifth Republic and the memory of the last great colonial conflict , 2006, ISBN 3-89971-300-1 , p. 115.
7. ^ Debré cabinet
8. ↑ Pompidou I cabinet
9. ^ Homepage of the Lycée Robert Buron