Charles Victor Pasqua (18 April 1927 – 29 June 2015) was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur.
Charles Pasqua | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of the Interior | |
| In office 29 March 1993 – 11 May 1995 | |
| Prime Minister | Édouard Balladur |
| Preceded by | Paul Quilès |
| Succeeded by | Jean-Louis Debré |
| In office 20 March 1986 – 10 May 1988 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacques Chirac |
| Preceded by | Pierre Joxe |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Joxe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles Victor Pasqua 18 April 1927 Grasse, France |
| Died | 29 June 2015 (aged 88) Suresnes, France |
| Political party | Rally for France (1999–2002) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse | Jeanne Joly (m. 1947) |
| Children | 1 |
Early life and family backgroundEdit
Pasqua was born on 18 April 1927 in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes.[1][2] His paternal grandfather was a shepherd from Casevecchie, Corsica[3][4] and he could speak Corsican fluently.[5] As of 1987, his cousin served as the Mayor of Casevecchie.[6]
During World War II, Pasqua joined the French Resistance at the age of sixteen.[3]
Pasqua received his Baccalauréat, followed by a degree in Law.[5]
Business careerEdit
From 1952 to 1971 Pasqua worked for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages (most notably pastis), starting as a salesman.[5][7]
In 1971, he founded Euralim, also known as Europe-Alimentation, an importer of Americano, a cocktail made by the Italian company Gancia.[8]
PoliticsEdit
In 1947, Pasqua helped create the section of the Gaullist Party RPF movement for the Alpes-Maritimes.[5] With Jacques Foccart and Achille Peretti, he was the co-founder of the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) in 1959 to counter the terrorist actions of the OAS during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962).[5] The SAC would be charged with the underground actions of the Gaullist movement and participated in the organization of the 30 May 1968 Gaullist counter-demonstration.[5][9]
From 1968 to 1973, Pasqua was deputy to the French National Assembly for the Hauts-de-Seine département for the UDR party, of which he was a leading member from 1974 to 1976.[5] He helped Jacques Chirac to take the lead of the party and participated in its transformation into the Rally for the Republic (RPR). Counsellor of Jacques Chirac alongside Marie-France Garaud, he was in charge of the organisation of Chirac's campaign for the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand (1981–1995). As such, he is considered to be Chirac's mentor in politics.[5]
From 1981 to 1986 Pasqua was senator for the Hauts-de-Seine, then president of the RPR group in the Senate.[1] From 1986 to 1988 he was Interior Minister (in charge of law enforcement). In 1992, he called a vote against the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. He became Interior Minister again from 1993 to 1995, and supported the candidacy of Edouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election. He is mostly remembered for having pushed a series of anti-immigration laws (lois Pasqua), and for his declaration "we will terrorize the terrorists."[5][9]
Pasqua headed the Rally for France (RPF), a sovereigntist (Eurosceptic) party, for a while in association with Philippe de Villiers.[5] At the 1999 European Parliament election, their list got ahead of the RPR list. He served as the President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine from 1988 to 2004.[7] In 2004, he was elected senator by an electoral college.
In 2008, Pasqua was convicted of illegal lobbying in the Mitterrand–Pasqua affair during his time serving as French Interior Minister. He was sentenced to a one-year jail term.[10]
In 2005, a US Senate report accused him, along with the British Respect politician George Galloway, of receiving the right to buy oil under the UN's oil-for-food scheme.[11] Pasqua denied the charges and pointed out that he never met Saddam Hussein, had never been to Iraq, and never cultivated any political ties with that country. In a lengthy written rebuttal to the Senate report, Charles Pasqua pointed out further that since the oil vouchers were lifted by a legal entity incorporated in a European country, it should be relatively easy for investigators to uncover the masterminds behind the fraud instead of making accusations based on "sensational" press articles.[12]
Personal life and deathEdit
Pasqua was married to Jeanne Joly, from Quebec, Canada.[5] They had a son, Pierre-Philippe Pasqua, who predeceased him, dying in February 2015.[3][5]
He died of a heart attack on 29 June 2015 at the Foch Hospital in Suresnes, near Paris.[13]
ReferencesEdit
- ^ a b "Anciens sénateurs Vème République : PASQUA Charles". www.senat.fr. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- ^ L'ancien ministre Charles Pasqua est mort à l'âge de 88 ans, Libération, 29 June 2015
- ^ a b c Mort de Charles Pasqua, gaulliste et ancien premier flic de France Archived 23 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Corse Matin, 30 June 2015
- ^ Le vieux lion est mort Archived 2 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Corse Matin, 30 June 2015
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Raphaëlle Bacqué, Mort de Charles Pasqua, un homme qui faisait « peur et rire tout à la fois », Le Monde, 29 June 2015
- ^ Pasqua en Corse, Institut national de l'audiovisuel, 14 June 1987
- ^ a b The Power Broker in France's Election / Interior Minister Pasqua embodies nation's social divide, The San Francisco Chronicle, 21 April 1995
- ^ Quand les RG scrutaient Pasqua chez Ricard, Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 January 2002
- ^ a b Gilles Bresson, Un souverainiste déchu par sa droite, Libération, 11 January 2001
- ^ "French Establishment Players Convicted Over Arms Trade to Angola Scandal". www.globalpolicy.org. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- ^ US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: "Report on oil allocations granted to Charles Pasqua & George Galloway", BBC, 12 May 2005
- ^ lefigaro.fr (27 October 2009). "Angolagate : condamné à un an ferme, Pasqua riposte". Le Figaro. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
- ^ Said Mahrane, Charles Pasqua est décédé des suites d'un accident cardiaque, Le Point, 29 June 2015