- Alain Savary
Alain Savary (April 25, 1918 - February 2, 1988) was a French Socialist politician, deputy during the Fourth and Fifth Republic, chairman of the Socialist Party (PS) and who held ministerial functions in the 1950s and in 1981, when he was nominated by President
François Mitterrand asMinister of National Education .Life
In 1940, as soon as France was occupied by the German army, he enlisted in the Resistance. He organized the rallying of
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon to theFree French Forces and became its governor. After the war, he participated to the restoring of the Republican State.Member of the socialist party
SFIO , he was deputy for Saint Pierre et Miquelon through-out most of the Fourth Republic, from 1944 to 1946 and from 1951 to 1958. In 1956, he was nominated Secretary of State to the Foreign Affairs inGuy Mollet 's cabinet, but resigned due to his opposition to the repressive policy of Mollet inAlgerian War (1954-62) and to the arrest ofAhmed Ben Bella . He left the SFIO in 1958, because of the support of the party toDe Gaulle 's come back and to the new Constitution elaborating a presidential regime (the Fifth Republic).With
Pierre Mendès-France , he founded the dissidentAutonomous Socialist Party (PSA) which became, in 1960, the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). However, he left it in 1967 and created theUnion of clubs for the renewal of the left , which merged in theFederation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS) which supported left-wing candidateFrançois Mitterrand at the 1965 presidential election. Then, he returned in the "old socialist house" when it was replaced by the Socialist Party (PS).In the PS
Reconciled with Guy Mollet, he succeeded him to the lead of the party in 1969. He promised to begin an "ideological dialogue" with the
French Communist Party (PCF). Yet, two years later, he was overthrown by François Mitterrand during theEpinay Congress , who proposed an alliance with the Communists based on a "Common Program ".Deputy for
Haute Garonne in 1973, thenMinister of National Education in 1981, he resigned three years later, after the failure of his project to limit the financing of the private schools.
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