François Autain (16 June 1935 – 21 December 2019) was a French politician. Over his career, he was a member of the
Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group
The Communist, Republican, Citizen and Ecologist group (french: groupe communiste, républicain, citoyen et ecologiste) is a parliamentary group in the French Senate, the indirectly elected upper house of the French Parliament. Unlike most other p ...
and a member of the
Left Party, prior to which he was a member of the
Citizen and Republican Movement but also the
PS and the
PSU.
He was a member of the
Senate of France
The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' a ...
, representing the
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population ...
department from 1983 to 2011 and a deputy in 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 ...
from 1978 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983, he served as a secretary of state in the governments of
Pierre Mauroy
Pierre Mauroy (; 5 July 1928 – 7 June 2013) was a French Socialist politician who was Prime Minister of France from 1981 to 1984 under President François Mitterrand. Mauroy also served as Mayor of Lille from 1973 to 2001. At the time of his d ...
in the
Ministry of Solidarity and Heath and the
Ministry of Defense
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...
.
Biography
François Autain was born on 16 June 1935 in the commune of
Luché-sur-Brioux in the
Deux-Sèvres
Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019. department. He studied medicine in
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...
and became active in the
Union Nationale des Étudiants de France during the
Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
.
He became a general practitioner in
Bouguenais, a commune near Nantes. In 1968, he joined the
Unified Socialist Party.
In 1971, he was elected as mayor of Bouguenais, a position that he held until 1993. He joined the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
in 1975 and won election to 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 the
1978 French legislative election. As a physician, he focused on health issues in the Assembly.
[ After the victory 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, ...
in the 1981 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 26 April 1981, with a second round on 10 May. François Mitterrand defeated incumbent president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing to become the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic.
In the firs ...
, Autain joined the government as a Secretary of State, or junior minister. He served in government until 1983, when he was elected as a Senator
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 e ...
.
Autain served in the Senate until 2011, having been re-elected in 1992 and 2001. He was a secretary of the senate as well as a quaestor, a role that gave him access to government funds that he could distribute to mayors of communes. The party removed him from its official list in 2001; however, he was able to win re-election in the 2001 French Senate Election
Following the end of the nine-year terms of Series C senators, a senatorial election was held on 26 September 2001 in order to renew one-third of the members of the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or ch ...
as a member of the Citizen and Republican Movement. He later left the Citizen and Republican Movement and joined the Left Party formed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the ''La France Insoumise'' group in the Natio ...
.
He did not stand as a candidate for re-election in 2011.
References
Page on the Senate website
1935 births
2019 deaths
People from Deux-Sèvres
Politicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Unified Socialist Party (France) politicians
Socialist Party (France) politicians
Citizen and Republican Movement politicians
Left Party (France) politicians
Deputies of the 6th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 7th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
French Senators of the Fifth Republic
Senators of Loire-Atlantique
Mayors of places in Pays de la Loire
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