'Pierre Eugène Bérégovoy' (23 December 1925 – 1 May 1993) was a French Socialist politician of Ukrainian origin. He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1992 to 1993.

Contents

Early career

Death

See also

External links

Early career

Pierre Bérégovoy was born in Déville-lès-Rouen, Haute-Normandie to a Ukrainian immigrant family (original family name ''Береговой'') who had left the Russian Empire after the Russian Civil War.
He started his professional life at the age of 16 as a qualified metal worker. He got involved in politics following his activities in the French Resistance - while working at SNCF during World War II. Member of the trade unions confederation Workers Force, he left the Socialist party SFIO in 1959 and participated to the foundation of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). He became an adviser of Pierre Mendès-France. In 1967, with Alain Savary, a create the pro-Mendès-France Union of clubs for the renewal of the left. This group joined Socialist Party (PS) in 1969. He integrated the executive group of the party behind François Mitterrand.
In 1981, when Mitterrand was elected President of France, he was chosen as secretary general of the presidency. One year later, he joined the cabinet as Minister of Social affairs. He was among the Socialist politicians who advised President Mitterrand to leave the European Monetary System in order to continue Socialist economic policy. But in March 1983, Mitterrand listened to his Prime minister Pierre Mauroy and ratified the change of economic policy. Bérégovoy came round it, and so could become Minister of Economy and Finance, from 1984 to the 1986 Socialist electoral defeat.
Elected mayor of Nevers in 1983, and deputy of Nièvre ''département'' in 1986, in the electoral land of Mitterrand, he led his 1988 presidential campaign. After his re-election, at the time of each cabinet reshuffle, his name was mentioned as a possible Prime Minister. In the end, he returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In this function, he symbolized the adaptation of French socialism to the market economy and struck up hearty relations with employers representing.
After the 1992 regional elections, which were a disaster for the PS, he was appointed Prime Minister at last. He promised to fight unemployment, economic decline and corruption. During his inaugural speech in the French National Assembly, he claimed he knew the names of politicians from the right-wing opposition implicated in corruption scandals, causing a great hue and cry.
He resigned after the Socialist electoral collapse of the 1993 legislative election.

Death

Pierre Bérégovoy died on 1 May 1993, in Paris after being transported by helicopter from Nevers (Nièvre), where he had been "found" an hour earlier, in a coma with two bullets in the head. The second bullet was attributed to a nervous reflex. Police investigators ruled his death as a suicide, confirming his bodyguard's deposition, who claimed the former prime minister was with him when he grabbed the guard's gun, which is more plausible than the first version of events which appeared in the press relating that Bérégovoy had returned alone to the car and had taken the gun from the glove box, although it is still hard to believe that a fit young highly trained bodyguard could let himself be disarmed by an elderly man who had spent most of his life behind a desk. The press also reported that "witnesses heard two shots...." (which presumes the bodyguard let Beregovoy walk out of sight once he had been disarmed) before finding the corpse. The only photo released to the press showed Beregovoy with a small calibre hole whereas a shot at close range with the bodyguard's 357 magnum would have blown half his head away. There was no investigation after the event which means there was no comparison between the arm allegedly used and the munitions which caused the death.
Most of Bérégovoy's close friends admitted that he had been depressed ever since he lost the March legislative elections in which his Socialist Party won only 67 out of 577 parliamentary seats. Bérégovoy was also being investigated over a 1 million Franc interest-free loan by businessman and close friend Roger Patrice-Pelat who had died of a heart attack on 7th March 1989, less than one month after being found guilty in the Péchiney-Triangle affair. Beregovoy's suicide came on the eve of the opening of a new trial concerning the acquisition of Triangle by Péchiney. His wife expressed some doubt, mainly because he had not left a suicide note and that his note pad, which he kept continually in his pocket, had disappeared. Some have suggested that Bérégovoy might actually have been assassinated, suggesting that similarities exist between his death and that of other figures close to Mitterrand including: René Lucet, the head of the social security, shot through the head on 4th March 1982; François de Grossouvre, Mitterand's adviser, shot through the head twice (more reflex action) at the Elysée Palace on 7th April 1994; and Pierre-Yves Guézou, responsible for the Elysée phone tapping, found hanging at his home on 12 December 1994.
At Bérégovoy's funeral, Mitterrand stated that media pressure in connection with the Pelat scandal was responsible for Bérégovoy's suicide. Targeting the press, he said "the honour of a man was given to dogs" but attributed to Bérégovoy "the greatness of one who chooses his destiny".

See also

★ Multiple gunshot suicide
==Bérégovoy's ministry, 2 April 1992 - 29 March 1993==

★ Pierre Bérégovoy - Prime Minister

★ Roland Dumas - Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Pierre Joxe - Minister of Defense

★ Paul Quilès - Minister of the Interior and Public Security

★ Michel Sapin - Minister of Economy, Finance, and Privatization

★ Michel Charasse - Minister of Budget

★ Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Minister of Industry and External Commerce

★ Martine Aubry - Minister of Labour, Employment, and Vocational Training

★ Michel Vauzelle - Minister of Justice

★ Jack Lang - Minister of National Education and Culture

★ Louis Mermaz - Minister of Agriculture and Forests

★ Ségolène Royal - Minister of Environment

★ Frédérique Bredin - Minister of Youth and Sports

★ Louis Le Pensec - Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories

★ Jean-Louis Bianco - Minister of Transport, Housing, and Equipment

★ Louis Mermaz - Minister of Relations with Parliament

★ Bernard Kouchner - Minister of Health and Humanitarian Action

★ Émile Zuccarelli - Minister of Posts and Telecommunications

★ Michel Delebarre - Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reform

★ Bernard Tapie - Minister of City

★ Hubert Curien - Minister of Research and Space

★ René Teulade - Minister of Social Affairs and Integration
'Changes'

★ 23 May 1992 - Bernard Tapie leaves the ministry and the office of Minister of City is abolished

★ 2 October 1992 - Martin Malvy succeeds Charasse as Minister of Budget. Jean-Pierre Soisson succeeds Mermaz as Minister of Agriculture, becoming also Minister of Rural Development.

★ 26 December 1992 - The office of Minister of City is reestablished, with Bernard Tapie again as Minister.

★ 9 March 1993 - Pierre Joxe leaves the ministry of Defence and was succeeded by Pierre Bérégovoy (who remain also Prime minister)

External links

★ Association Pierre Bérégovoy, in French only

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