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Balladur

Édouard Balladur
Edouard Balladur-1-crop2.png
Prime Minister of France
In office
29 March 1993 – 10 May 1995
President François Mitterrand
Preceded by Pierre Bérégovoy
Succeeded by Alain Juppé
Minister of Finance
In office
20 March 1986 – 12 May 1988
President François Mitterrand
Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
Preceded by Pierre Bérégovoy
Succeeded by Pierre Bérégovoy
Secretary General of the Presidency
In office
5 April 1973 – 2 April 1974
President Georges Pompidou
Preceded by Michel Jobert
Succeeded by Bernard Beck
Personal details
Born (1929-05-02) 2 May 1929 (age 88)
Izmir, Turkey
Political party Union for a Popular Movement
Spouse(s) Marie-Josèphe Delacour
Children 4
Occupation Senior official

Édouard Balladur (French: [edwaʁ baladyʁ]; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, coming in third place.

Balladur was born in Izmir, Turkey, to an ethnic Armenian family with five children and longstanding ties to France. His family emigrated to Marseille in the mid to late 1930s.

In 1957, Balladur married Marie-Josèphe Delacour, with whom he had four sons.

Balladur started his political career in 1964 as an advisor to Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. After Pompidou's election as President of France in 1969, Balladur was appointed under-secretary general of the presidency then secretary general from 1973 to Pompidou's death in 1974.

He returned to politics in the 1980s as a supporter of Jacques Chirac. A member of the Neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) party, he was the theoretician behind the "cohabitation government" from 1986 to 1988, explaining that if the right won the legislative election, it could govern with Chirac as prime minister without Socialist Party President François Mitterrand's resignation. As Minister of Economy and Finance, he sold off a large number of public companies and abolished the wealth tax.

He appeared as an unofficial deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet led by Chirac. He took a major part in the adoption of liberal and pro-European policies by Chirac and the RPR. After Chirac's defeat at the 1988 presidential election, part of the RPR held him responsible of the abandonment of Gaullist doctrine, but he kept the confidence of Chirac.


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