Jack Mathieu Émile Lang (; born 2 September 1939)
is a French politician. A member of the
Socialist Party, he served as
Minister of Culture
A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizati ...
from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993, as well as
Minister of National Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002.
He was also
Mayor of
Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the d ...
from 1989 until his resignation in 2000.
[ Lang is best known for originating the ]Fête de la Musique
The Fête de la Musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighborho ...
in 1982 as Culture Minister, an all day public music festival which occurs yearly on 21 June in France and throughout the world. Since 2013 he has been president of the Arab World Institute
The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural a ...
in Paris.
Early life
Jack Lang was born to Roger Lang and Marie-Luce Bouchet in Mirecourt, in the département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
of Vosges. His father's family were a secular, assimilated, well-to-do Jewish family based in Nancy. Roger Lang was the commercial manager of the family business which was founded by Jack's grandfather Albert. Roger and Albert were both freemasons
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. Jack's mother, Marie-Luce Bouchet, a Catholic, was born in 1919 as the daughter of Emile Bouchet, who died in 1926, and Berthe Boulanger, a nurse who was also a freemason.
In 1938, Albert and Roger sent their wives to Vichy because of the threat of war with Germany. After the German invasion, Albert Lang and his wife moved to Brive-la-Gaillarde
Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of oc, Briva la Galharda) is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the agglomeration was ...
in Corrèze. The very young Jack and his mother went to stay with his great grandmother (the mother of Berthe Boulanger) in Cholet and subsequently moved to Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...
. His father Roger was first mobilized in Luneville, and then joined his parents and his brother-in-law Luc Bouchet in Brive. Jack and his mother also joined them in Brive after the bombing of Bordeaux. Jack Lang's father was sentenced by the court in Brive for failure to report his children as Jews, but was later acquitted by the Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
on the ground that the children's mother was a Catholic. He had followed the advice of the rabbi of Brive, David Feuerwerker
David Feuerwerker (October 2, 1912 – June 20, 1980) was a French Jewish rabbi and professor of Jewish history who was effective in the resistance to German occupation the Second World War. He was completely unsuspected until six months before ...
.
Roger Lang was nevertheless placed under house arrest. Berthe Bouchet (Boulanger) visited the Langs in April 1942 when her daughter was about to give birth to her third child, Marianne. In 1943, Berthe was arrested in Nancy by the Gestapo for acts of propaganda and resistance. She was deported to Ravensbrück and died in the spring of 1945.
Jack Lang studied political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, and went on to receive a postgraduate degree in public law. His career then focused on a combination of teaching and culture and the arts. He was the founder and producer of Festival du Monde in Nancy, was director of the Nancy University Theatre from 1963 to 1972, and then director of the Théâtre national de Chaillot from 1972 to 1974. At the same time he was a professor of international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
from 1971 to 1981 at Nancy University and then Paris Nanterre University. He married Monique Buczynski in 1961. The couple have two daughters.
In 1997, he was President of Jury to the 47th Berlin International Film Festival
The 47th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1997. The Golden Bear was awarded to Canadian-American film ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' directed by Miloš Forman. The retrospective dedicated to Austrian film ...
.
Politics
Lang entered politics as a Socialist member of the French National Assembly from Paris in 1977. He is best known for having served as Minister of Culture
A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizati ...
(22 May 1981 – 19 March 1986 and 13 May 1988 – 29 March 1993) and as Minister of Education (3 April 1992 – 29 March 1993 and 27 March 2000 – 5 May 2002).[
In 1981, while Minister of Culture, he created the ]Fête de la Musique
The Fête de la Musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighborho ...
, a massive celebration of music held on 21 June each year, where many amateur musicians give free open-air performances. He is the co-founder and president of the Union of the Theatres of Europe
The Union of European Theatres (UTE; french: Union des Théâtres de l'Europe) is an alliance of European public theatres. It serves to promote European integration through cultural interaction.
It does intensive transnational theatre work compr ...
.
In August 1981, he created the Lang Law Lang Law is the informal name given to French law number 81-766, from 10 August 1981, which establishes a fixed price for books sold in France and limits price discounts on them. The law is named after Jack Lang, the French Minister of Culture res ...
, which allows publishers to enforce a minimum sale price for books.
In the 80s he contributed to the creation of the Europe Theatre Prize, born in 1986, of which he is the current President.
Lang was a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997. In 2000, he stood unsuccessfully for Mayor of Paris. While he had planned to stand for president in 2007, he ultimately decided not to register as a candidate in the Socialist primary for the sake of party unity.
In 2007, Lang agreed to become co-chairman of a commission drafting changes to the Constitution that were supported by President Nicolas Sarkozy but opposed by the Socialist Party. This decision provoked strong criticism from his party, leading him to end his role in the party leadership. When Parliament voted on the constitutional changes on 21 July 2008, he voted in favour, becoming the only Socialist deputy so to do. A three-fifths majority was required, and the changes passed by a vote of 539 to 357, meaning that Lang's support enabled the bill to pass by a one-vote margin. The Socialist Party denounced Lang for this vote; party spokesman Julien Dray
Julien Dray (born 5 March 1955 in Oran, French Algeria) is a French politician. He is a member of the French Socialist Party, member of the regional council of Île-de-France and was a member of the National Assembly of France between 1988 an ...
said that he had "gone too far" and "no longer has his place in our political family", while Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...
, the President of the Socialist Parliamentary Group, said that Lang's vote was an act of "crossing the Rubicon
The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" is an idiom that means "passing a point of no return". Its meaning comes from allusion to the crossing of the river Rubicon by Julius Caesar in early January 49 BC. The exact date is unknown. Scholars us ...
". Lang replied by saying that it "is in nobody's power to strike me from the map of the French political landscape".
In late 2009, Sarkozy appointed Lang his special envoy to North Korea, following a similar assignment earlier in the year to Cuba. Lang travelled to Pyongyang on 9 November 2009 for a self-described "listening mission" aimed at exploring bilateral ties and discussing the North Korean nuclear program
North Korea has a military nuclear weapons program and, as of early 2020, is estimated to have an arsenal of approximately 30 to 40 nuclear weapons and sufficient production of fissile material for six to seven nuclear weapons per year. , among other things. Lang briefed American officials including Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and special envoy Sung Kim
Sung Yong Kim ( ko, 김성용; born 1960) is an American diplomat of Korean descent serving as the United States Special Representative for North Korea Policy since 2021, and previously from 2014 to 2016. He has also served as the acting Assist ...
, as well as ambassadors of countries involved such as Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
, before the assignment was publicly announced. Some critics questioned Lang's qualifications, but Lang said he would be driven by his "intuition" that change was afoot in North Korea.
In August 2010, Lang became special adviser on piracy at the United Nations. He was brought in to advise on the prosecution of pirates off the coast of Somalia.
In 2012 Lang was chosen as the Socialist Party candidate for the National Assembly in the second district in the Vosges department. A controversial figure in the Socialist Party since his collaboration with Sarkozy, Lang's constituency was abolished during the national reapportionment and he failed to be nominated in several other constituencies before finally succeeding in the Vosges. The electorate in this department is considered by observers to be more conservative than in Lang's previous seat. Lang was criticized for being an 'outsider', to which he countered that he had been born in the region. Lang was narrowly defeated on the second round of voting in the election on 17 June 2012, winning 49.1% of the vote.
Political career
Governmental functions
* Minister of Culture : 1981–1986.
* Minister of Culture, Communication, Great Works and of the Bicentennial : 1988–1991.
* Minister of Culture and Communication, government's spokesman : 1991–1992.
* Minister of State, minister of National Education and Culture : 1992–1993.
* Minister of National Education : 2000–2002.
* Special envoy to Cuba : February 2009.
* Special envoy to North Korea : November 2009.
Electoral mandates
European Parliament
* Member of European Parliament : 1994–1997 (Reelected member of the National Assembly of France in 1997). Elected in 1994.
National Assembly of France
* Member of the National Assembly of France for Pas-de-Calais : Since 2002. Elected in 2002, re-elected in 2007.
* Member of the National Assembly of France for Loir-et-Cher : 1986–1988 (Became minister in 1988) / March–December 1993 (Resignation) / 1997–2000 (Became minister in 2000). Elected in 1986, re-elected in 1988, 1993, 1997.
Regional Council
* Vice-president of the Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais : Since 2004
* Regional councillor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais : Since 2004.
* Regional councillor of Centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
: 1992–1998.
General Council
* General councillor of Loir-et-Cher : 1992–1993 (Resignation).
Municipal Council
* Mayor of Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the d ...
: 1989–2000 (Resignation). Reelected in 1995.
* Municipal councillor of Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the d ...
: 1989–2002 (Resignation). Re-elected in 1995.
* Councillor of Paris 1983–1989.
Bibliography
Books
*
* ''Le plateau continental de la mer du Nord : Arrêt de la Cour Internationale de Justice'', février 1969 LGDJ bibliothèque de droit international
* ''Éclats'' (avec Jean-Denis Bredin), éditions Jean-Claude Simoën, 1978
* ''Demain, les femmes'', Grasset, août 1995
* ''Lettre à André Malraux'', Éditions 1, November 1996
* ''François Ier'', Perrin, octobre 1997
* ''Les araignées'', Pocket, 2000
* ''La politique, d'où ça vient ? L'origine de l'État, Les fondements de la République, La genèse de l'impôt'' (avec Odon Vallet et Gaëtan de Séguin des Hons), Flammarion Flammarion may refer to:
* Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author
* Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion
* Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by ...
, août 2000
* ''Qu'apprend-on au collège ? Pour comprendre ce que nos enfants apprennent'' (avec Claire Bretécher), XO éditions, janvier 2002
* ''Anna au muséum'', Hachette Jeunesse, avril 2002
* ''Laurent le Magnifique'', Perrin, août 2002
* ''Une école élitaire pour tous'', Gallimard, septembre 2003
* ''Un nouveau régime politique pour la France'', Odile Jacob
Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded ''Les Éditions Odile Jacob'' in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.Frédéric Saliba, ' ...
, août 2004,
* ''Nelson Mandela : Leçon de vie pour l'avenir'', Perrin, janvier 2005 –
* ''Changer'' livre programme pour 2007, Plon, Septembre 2005,
* '' Immigration positive'', avec Hervé Le Bras, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2006,
* ''Faire la révolution fiscale'', Plon, 2006,
* ''Demain comme hier'', avec Jean-Michel Helvig, Fayard, 2009,
* ''La bataille du Grand Louvre'', éditions Réunions des Musées Nationaux, 2010,
* ''Ce que je sais de François Mitterrand'', Le Seuil, 2011,
* ''François Mitterrand : fragments de vie partagée'', Le Seuil, 2011
* ''Pourquoi ce vandalisme d'État contre l'École : lettre au Président de la République'', Éditions du Félin, 2011,
Prefaces, forewords and other contributions
* ''Le Gardien des âmes'' de Alain Roullier (France Europe éditions), 1998.
* ''16 ans ou l'avènement de la conscience citoyenne'' de Adyl Abdelhafidi
* ''Homosexualité. 10 clés pour comprendre, 20 textes à découvrir'' de Bruno Perreau
Bruno Perreau (PhD, Paris I Sorbonne) is the Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Non-Resident Faculty at the Center for European Studies, Harvard.
Perreau taught political science, ...
(Librio), 2005.
* ''Mitterrand, Une Affaire d'Amitié'', de Stephan-Xavier Trano (L'Archipel), 2006,
* ''Héritage'' de Jean Paul Leon (Minedition), 2006,
Critical studies and biographies of Lang
* Caplan, Lincoln, "M. Le Ministre", '' The New Yorker'' 60/47 (7 January 1985) : 18–19
* Jean-Pierre Colin, ''L'Acteur et le Roi'', Georg, 1994
* Jean-Pierre Colin, ''Le Mystère Lang'', Georg, 2000
* Nicolas Charbonneau, Laurent Guimier, ''Docteur Jack et Mister Lang'', Le Cherche midi, 2004
* Marie Delarue, ''Les Aventures de Lang de Blois, enquêtes'', Jacques Granger, 1995
* ''À table avec les politiques'', 2005, film documentaire de Frédéric Lepage
*
* Edition établie et présentée par Frederic Martel, ''Jack Lang Une Revolution Culturelle Dits et Écrits'' Bouquins la collection
;Festival de Nancy
* Marie-Ange Rauch, ''Le théâtre en France en 1968, histoire d'une crise'', thèse consacrée à l'histoire du théâtre en France (1945–1972), Nanterre, 1995, 475 pages. Voir chapitre 2 : « les étudiants le théâtre et le Festival de Nancy », pp. 135–143.
;As Minister for Culture and Communication
* Laurent Martin, ''Le prix unique du livre 1981–2006. La loi Lang'', coordonné par Laurent Martin, Comité d'histoire du ministère de la Culture et des institutions culturelles – IMEC, collection L'édition contemporaine, 2006, 197 p.
* Laurent Martin, « Oui, le livre a un prix », '' L'Histoire'', number 216, janvier 2007.
* Philippe Poirrier, ''L'État et la culture en France au XXe'', Le Livre de Poche, 2006.
* Michel Schneider
Michel Schneider (28 May 1944 – 21 July 2022) was a French writer, musicologist, énarque, senior official, and psychoanalyst. He was the father of journalist and writer Vanessa Schneider and of François Schneider, history teacher. He was a ...
, ''La Comédie de la Culture'', Seuil, 1993.
References
External links
Official website
Jack Lang blog
Assemble-nationale.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Jack
1939 births
Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
French Ministers of Culture
French Ministers of National Education
French people of Jewish descent
Government spokespersons of France
Living people
Mayors of places in Centre-Val de Loire
Music festival founders
People from Mirecourt
Politicians from Grand Est
Sciences Po alumni
Socialist Party (France) politicians