Jean-Claude Gayssot

Jean-Claude Gayssot (born September 6, 1944, in Béziers) is a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party (PCF), he was Minister of Transportation in Lionel Jospin (Socialist Party)'s government, from 1997 to 2002. He gave his name to the 1990 "Gayssot Act" repressing Holocaust denial and speech in favor of racial discrimination. He is also at the origins of the Act on housing projects (loi SRU), which imposes a 20% housing projects limits in each town lest they pay a penalty fine, in an attempt to struggle against spatial segregation (Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France, is an often cited example of a commune which prefers to pay rather than respect the limit).