Marie-Thérèse Goutmann was a communist politician and the first woman to chair a
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
parliamentary group in
France.
She was born in 1933 to the painter and resistance fighter
Jean Milhau. She joined the
French Communist Party at the age of 18, and after several unsuccessful election attempts became a senator for
Seine-Saint-Denis in 1968. She chaired the communist parliamentary group after the death of
Jacques Duclos
Jacques Duclos (2 October 189625 April 1975) was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial p ...
in 1975 until 1978.
In 1986, she received a six-month suspended sentence and 8,000 franc fine for electoral fraud in the municipal elections of
Noisy-le-Grand.
References
1933 births
2016 deaths
French Communist Party politicians
French Senators of the Fifth Republic
Women members of the Senate (France)
20th-century French women politicians
French politicians
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