Christian Pineau

Christian Pineau ( born October 14, 1904 in Chaumont -en- Bassigny (Haute- Marne), † April 5, 1995 in Paris) was a French socialist politician.

Life

After studying law and political science, he joined in the 1930s in the socialist trade union CGT and became a close associate of Léon Jouhaux.

After the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht, he became active in the Resistance and was a founder of the movement Libération Nord and head of the network phalanx. He graduated in 1942 Charles de Gaulle (although he faced the political views of the general skeptical ), in 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. After the liberation of France, he was from 1945 to 1958 socialist deputy of the department of Sarthe.

After he had several times been a minister, he as the new President of the Council ( Président du conseil des ministres ) was in the government crisis that followed the resignation of the prime minister Pierre Mendès -France, appointed and appointed a government, but by the National Assembly with 312 was rejected on 268 votes. Instead, the radical Edgar Faure took office.

From February 1956 to May 1958 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and participated in the planning of the Suez expedition. He was also involved in the negotiation of the Treaty of Rome, the founding document of the European Communities, which he signed on behalf of France. He tried an opening towards the Eastern Bloc countries to achieve and therefore visited by Prime Minister Guy Mollet Moscow. During his whole life he was a staunch pioneer of European integration. He was awarded the Ordre de la Libération and is located in the cemetery Cimetière du Père Lachaise buried in Paris.