René Toribio (born 10 December 1912 in Lamentin,

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

; died 27 July 1990 in the same town) was a French politician and was a member of the French Senate representing Guadeloupe from 1959 to 1968.

Biography

Before WWII he was a teacher and a headmaster. Active in the French Resistance, he was elected as mayor of his home town Lamentin in 1945. Two years later, as Guadeloupe had become a French department in 1946, he was also elected as the first

conseiller général The departmental councils (French: ''conseils départementaux''; singular, ''conseil départemental'') of France are representative assemblies elected by universal suffrage in 98 of the country's 101 departments. Prior to the 2015 French depar ...

of the Lamantin Canton. He became a member of the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was found ...

in 1949 and rapidly emerged as one of its local leaders. He was elected its federal secretary for Guadeloupe until 1958. He then presided in 1953-1956 the

General Council General council may refer to: In education: * General Council (Scottish university), an advisory body to each of the ancient universities of Scotland * General Council of the University of St Andrews, the corporate body of all graduates and senio ...

of Guadeloupe. One year after an unsuccessful candidacy at the 1958 legislative election, he was elected in 1959 as a senator, thus holding three mandates simultaneously.René Toribio
, ''Website of the French Senate'' In five years time he lost his mandates of conseiller général (1967), of senator (1968), of mayor (1971), then quit his party in 1972 to form the

Guadeloupean Socialist Party Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Ba ...

, a splinter of the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste , PS) is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major p ...

in reaction against the Programme commun signed by the PS with the French Communist Party. Under this new political label, he took part to the 1973 legislative election, but failed to be elected. He supported in 1974 the presidential candidacy of

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

, but never again joined the PS. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, he succeeded to regain his mayorship in Lamentin, but deceased the next year and was succeeded by his son José Toribio, who also became the new PSG's president.

Notes

References

1912 births 1990 deaths People from Lamentin Guadeloupean politicians French Section of the Workers' International politicians Socialist Party (France) politicians French Senators of the Fifth Republic Senators of Guadeloupe {{Guadeloupe-politician-stub