Félix Gaillard

French politician (1919–1970)

Félix Gaillard


Prime Minister of France
In office 6 November 1957 – 14 May 1958
President	René Coty
Preceded by	Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury
Succeeded by	Pierre Pflimlin

Personal details
Born	(1919-11-05)5 November 1919 Paris, France
Died	10 July 1970(1970-07-10) (aged 50) near Jersey
Political party	Radical

Félix Gaillard d'Aimé (French: [feliks ɡajaʁ]; 5 November 1919 – 10 July 1970) was a French Radical politician who served as Prime Minister under the Fourth Republic from 1957 to 1958. He was the youngest head of a French government since Napoleon.^[1]

Career

A senior civil servant in the Inland Revenue Service, Gaillard joined the Resistance and served on its Finance committee. As a member of the Radical Party, he was elected deputy of Charente département in 1946. During the Fourth Republic, he held a number of governmental offices, notably as Minister of Economy and Finance in 1957.

Prime minister

He became Prime Minister in 1957, but, not unusually for the French Fourth Republic; his term of office lasted only a few months. Gaillard was defeated in a vote of no confidence by the French National Assembly, in March 1958, after the bombing of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef, a Tunisian village.

Later political career

President of the Radical Party from 1958 to 1961, he advocated an alliance of the center-left and the center-right parties. He represented a generation of young politicians whose careers were blighted by the advent of the Fifth Republic.

Death

Gaillard was last seen alive on 9 July 1970, when he and three passengers boarded his yacht, the Marie Grillon and departed the island of Jersey to return to the French mainland after a brief stay. The next day, bits of the wreckage of the yacht were found at the Minquiers reefs, along with the bodies of the two passengers.^[2] Gaillard's body was found, along with that of another passenger, floating in the English Channel on 12 July.^[3]

Gaillard's Ministry, 6 November 1957 – 14 May 1958

Félix Gaillard – President of the Council
Christian Pineau – Minister of Foreign Affairs
Jacques Chaban-Delmas – Minister of National Defense and Armed Forces
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury – Minister of the Interior
Pierre Pflimlin – Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Planning
Paul Ribeyre – Minister of Commerce and Industry
Paul Bacon – Minister of Labour and Social Security
Robert Lecourt – Minister of Justice
René Billères – Minister of National Education, Youth, and Sports
Antoine Quinson – Minister of Veterans and War Victims
Roland Boscary-Monsservin – Minister of Agriculture
Gérard Jaquet – Minister of Overseas France
Édouard Bonnefous – Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism
Félix Houphouët-Boigny – Minister of Public Health and Population
Pierre Garet – Minister of Reconstruction and Housing
Max Lejeune – Minister for the Sahara

Political offices
Preceded by Paul Ramadier	Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs 1957	Succeeded by Pierre Pflimlin
Preceded by Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury	Prime Minister of France 1957–1958	Succeeded by Pierre Pflimlin
Party political offices
Preceded by Édouard Daladier	President of the Radical Party 1958–1961	Succeeded by Maurice Faure

References

^ "Biography in French on the Assemblée Nationale Web Site". Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
^ "Ex-French Premier Missing in Channel". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 11 July 1970. p. 2. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
^ "Yacht Blast Yields Ex-Premier's Body". Atlanta Constitution. 11 July 1970. p. 2.

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