Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin (born August 3, 1948) is a French conservative politician. He is the current Prime Minister of France.
Born in Poitiers. He studied law at Paris-Assas University and later graduated from the Ecole supÃÂérieure de commerce de Paris business school. He has been the Prime Minister since April 2002. He was named by President Jacques Chirac after the latter's reelection as President.
His political policy combines communication, authority and neoliberalism. In 2003, he launched the reform of the public retirement scheme and that of the decentralization, which caused many strikes. During the summer of 2003, the country knew an unusual episode of heat wave which caused the death of more than 13,000 people: the perceived late reaction of the governement was reproached to him.
On March 28, 2004, the ruling UMP party suffered a disaster during the regional elections, with all but one rÃÂégions of mainland France going to the opposition (PS, PCF, Les Verts). This was generally interpreted, including by Raffarin himself, as a gesture of no-confidence against the government from the electorate. On March 30, Jean-Pierre Raffarin tendered the resignation of his government to president Chirac, who immediately re-appointed him prime minister, with the charge to form a new government. The new cabinet announced on March 31 no longer contains the ministers (such as Luc Ferry or Jean-FranÃÂçois Mattei) who had committed important mistakes during the previous administration.
See also:
External links
- http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/fr/p.cfm?ref=411 Biography (In French)
- BBC Profile (in English)
Lionel Jospin |width="40%" align="center"|Prime Minister of France
2002- |width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Current Incumbent