Georges Pompidou | |
---|---|
19th President of France | |
In office 20 June 1969 – 2 April 1974 |
|
Prime Minister |
Jacques Chaban-Delmas Pierre Messmer |
Preceded by | Alain Poher (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Alain Poher (Acting) |
Co-Prince of Andorra | |
In office 20 June 1969 – 2 April 1974 |
|
Preceded by | Alain Poher (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Alain Poher (Acting) |
100th Prime Minister of France | |
In office 14 April 1962 – 10 July 1968 |
|
President | Charles de Gaulle |
Preceded by | Michel Debré |
Succeeded by | Maurice Couve de Murville |
Member of the Constitutional Council | |
In office 5 March 1959 – 14 April 1962 |
|
Appointed by | Charles de Gaulle |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Bernard Chenot |
Personal details | |
Born |
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou 5 July 1911 Montboudif, France |
Died | 2 April 1974 Paris, France |
(aged 62)
Resting place | Orvilliers Cimetiere Orvilliers, France |
Political party |
Union for the New Republic (Before 1968) Union of Democrats for the Republic (1968–1974) |
Spouse(s) | Claude Cahour (1935–1974) |
Children | Alain |
Alma mater |
École Normale Supérieure Sciences Po |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou (French: [ʒɔʁʒ pɔ̃pidu]; 5 July 1911 – 2 April 1974) was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968—the longest tenure in the position's history—and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974. He had long been a top aide to president Charles de Gaulle. As president, he was a moderate conservative who repaired France's relationship with the United States, and maintained positive relations with the newly-independent former colonies in Africa.
He strengthened his political party, the Union of Democrats for the Republic ("Union des Democrates pour la Ve République" or UDR), to make it a bastion of the Gaullist movement. Pompidou's presidency is generally held in high esteem by French political commentators.
Pompidou was born in the commune of Montboudif, in the department of Cantal in central France. After his khâgne at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he befriended future Senegalese poet and Léopold Sédar Senghor, he attended the École Normale Supérieure, from which he graduated with a degree of agrégation in literature.
He first taught literature at the lycée Henri IV in Paris until hired in 1953 by Guy de Rothschild to work at Rothschild. In 1956, he was appointed the bank's general manager, a position he held until 1962. Later, he was hired by Charles de Gaulle to manage the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Down syndrome (de Gaulle's daughter Anne had Down's syndrome).