Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Home > People > History > French History: Biographies

Raffarin, Jean-Pierre (b. 3 Aug. 1948). Prime Minster of France, 2002–  He entered business and became a successful marketing director. He entered politics in 1976, and in 1988 became the President of the regional council of Poitou-Charentes. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1989. He became a Senator in 1995, when he also entered the government of Alain Juppé as Minister for Small Business. In that year he also became party secretary of the UDF. Following the election defeat for the conservative parties in 1997, he left his party when it split about its future political course. He joined the small Liberal Democracy Party, whose Vice-President he became. In this position, he strove to promote unity among the divided and weakened right-wing parties of France. When Jospin resigned as Prime Minister five weeks ahead of the parliamentary elections, Raffarin became Chirac's surprise appointment as Prime Minister. Apart from his friendship with Chirac, Raffarin was commended by his moderate political outlook. Moreover, he benefited from his provincial origins, after a presidential election which had demonstrated the popular aversion to the Parisian political establishment. Raffarin's UMP won a resounding victory at the parliamentary elections on a ticket of law and order, and tax cuts.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin , 1948–, French politician. From a political family, he began his career in business and served as a spokesman for a labor minister in the late 1970s before returning to the private sector. A conservative, Raffarin turned permanently to politics in 1988 when he became president of the Poitou-Charentes regional council; shortly thereafter he was elected to the European Parliament. From 1995 to 1997 he was the minister for small business, also becoming an adviser to President Jacques Chirac . The low-key, self-effacing Raffarin was appointed interim premier after the president's reelection in May, 2002, replacing Lionel Jospin . Six weeks later, after Chirac's coalition won a landslide parliamentary victory, Raffarin became premier. He worked for government decentralization, lower taxes, limited public deficits, and aid to children and schools, and framed changes in France's pension laws (2003) that were designed to preserve the financial health of the French pension system. When voters rejected a new EU constitution in 2005, however, he resigned as premier and was succeeded by Dominique de Villepin .