Michel Durafour

Michel Durafour
Mayor of Saint-Étienne
In office
1964–1977
Preceded by Alexandre de Fraissinette
Succeeded by Joseph Sanguedolce
Personal details
Born (1920-04-11)11 April 1920
Saint-Étienne, France
Died 27 July 2017(2017-07-27) (aged 97)
Saint-Étienne, France
Nationality French
Political party Radical Party

Michel Durafour (11 April 1920 in Saint-Étienne, Loire – 27 July 2017) was a French conservative politician. He served in many government posts under Jacques Chirac, Raymond Barre and Michel Rocard, and was Mayor of Saint-Étienne from 1965 to 1977.[1]

In 1988, while serving as Minister of Public Service in Rocard's government, Durafour was the subject of a personal attack on his faith which provoked a "storm of criticism".[2][3] Jean-Marie Le Pen, a right wing defeated Presidential candidate, referred to Durafour as "Mr. Durafour-crematoire", a play on words as "four" is the French term for oven, and "oven crematorium" is a reference to the Nazi death camps of the Second World War.[3] Alain Juppé responded by stating that "There are words one does not make jokes about" while the French Socialist Party spokesman Jean-Jack Queyranne stated that "Mr. Le Pen is showing what he is at heart: a racist and an anti-Semite".[3] Le Pen himself stated that he was responding to Durafour's own accusations regarding Le Pen's role in World War II, and that "Mr. Durafour is not just an imbecile but a bum".[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Michel Durafour from IMDB Retrieved 30 May 2008
  2. ↑ L'Humanité – Libres Échanges Archived 6 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 30 May 2008
  3. 1 2 3 4 Anti-Semitic Joke Assailed in France from The New York Times Retrieved 30 May 2008
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