Jean Lecanuet
Jean Adrien François Lecanuet ( born March 4, 1920 in Rouen, † February 21, 1993 in Neuilly -sur -Seine ) was a French politician.
Life
Lecanuet comes from a modest background. 1942 Lecanuet the youngest lecturer in France ( philosophy). At the same time he became involved in the Resistance of Capitaine Michele specializing in railway sabotage.
After France's liberation, the young professor of philosophy opted for the policy ( MRP) and belonged from 1945 to 1951 in various cabinets. 1951-1955 he was a deputy in his home constituency of Seine- Maritime in the National Assembly. As such, he held various positions, including in the Conseil d' État.
From 1959 to 1973 he worked as a centrist for the constituency of Seine- Maritime in the French Senate. From 1963 to 1965 he was president of his party MRP.
As a centrist candidate Lecanuet, supports joined by Paul Reynaud, in 1965 in the presidential elections against the incumbent President General Charles de Gaulle. In the first round of voting on December 5, 1965, he received 15.6 % ( 3.77712 million votes) and thus retired as a third party by a wide margin to 44.6 % with de Gaulle and François Mitterrand with 31.7 %, but forced thus surprising de Gaulle in a second ballot against François Mitterrand.
In his home town of Rouen, he was from 1968 until his death 25 years, mayor. There he introduced the first pedestrian zone of France.
Before the second round of the legislative elections in 1973 Jean Lecanuet acted with Pierre Messmer from the tactical withdrawal of candidates from the centrist and Gaullists in key constituencies which helped the two groups together to a majority in the National Assembly.
Lecanuet resigned his Senate seat back, successfully applied for a seat in the National Assembly, but maintained in the following year, to enter 1974-1976 as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Jacques Chirac. During this time, he campaigned for lowering the voting age to 18. He defended the constitutional reform that allows sixty deputies to take the Constitutional fitting.
The government Raymond Barre, he was from 1976 to 1977 as Minister of State, chargé du Plan et de l' Aménagement du territoire on. 1977 to 1988 he was back for the constituency of Seine- Maritime in the Senate, where he led the Commission on Foreign Affairs, Defence and the armed forces headed from 1979.
In 1978 he co-founded a UDF, which he chaired for the next 10 years. As Atlanticist, convinced European and supporters of the United States from Europe in 1979 he was also elected as Members of the European Parliament. The referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, he advocated vigorously.