Robert Poujade (6 May 1928 – 8 April 2020), born in Moulins, Allier, was a French

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He was the first French Minister of the Environment and was mayor of

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

from 1971 to 2001.

Biography

The son of a professor of literature, Poujade became a teacher in literature after having studied at the Ecole normale supérieur. Initially politically active for environmental causes, and a member in the successive

Gaullist Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle with ...

parties ( RPF, UNR, UDR, RPR), Poujade became the first Minister of the Environment in France in 1971. He served in the government of Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, under the presidency of

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

. As an opponent to the mayor of Dijon Félix Kir, Robert Poujade ran for

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the first time in 1962. He succeeded only in 1967, and stayed at the parliament to 1981, year of Mitterrand's victory. He was returned at the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

in year 1986 and held the post continuously until his retirement in 2002. In Dijon, Robert Poujade entered the city council in 1968. After Felix Kir's death in 1971, he became the first Gaullist mayor of Dijon. He retired in 2001, and his successor Jean-François Bazin lost the election against

François Rebsamen François Rebsamen (born 25 June 1951) is a French politician who was the Minister of Social Affairs from 2014 to 2015. He is a member of the Socialist Party. Early life and education Rebsamen is the son of Eric Gottfried Rebsamen, a Protes ...

, who became the first Socialist mayor of the City since before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

References