Pierre Beregovoy

Pierre Eugene Beregovoy was born on the 23rd of December in 1925 to a Ukrainian father and a French mother. Beregovoy began his working life at 16 as a metal worker and his political activities in the French Resistance. Beregovoy worked for the SMCF during World War II. Beregovoy was also a member of the SFIO Socialist Party, the Workers Force, and a technical agent in Gaz de France. In 1959 Beregovoy left the SFIO and helped found the dissident unified Socialist Party. He was an adviser to Pierre Mendes-France.

In 1967 Beregovoy joined the Socialist Party and fought for the election of Francois Mitterrand. In 1981 Pierre Beregovoy became Mitterrand's Secretary General of the Presidency. He later became Minister of Social Affairs. In 1984 to 1986 Beregovoy was Minister of the Economy and Finance. After the 1992 regional elections Beregovoy was appointed Prime Minister. As Prime Minister he fought unemployment, economic decline and corruption. He was directly responsible for politicians from the right wing opposition party being implicated and sentenced in corruption scandals. Beregovoy was also directly responsible for adding sexual harassment into the French labor code and providing the means to prosecute harassment.

Beregovoy died May 1, 1993 after being found with two bullets in his head. His death was ruled a suicide. Beregovoy was extremely depressed when he lost the March legislative elections where his Socialist party won only 67 out of 577 parliamentary seats. He was also under investigation for a one-million franc interest free loan he received from a friend. To this day Beregovoy's wife is not convinced his death was suicide, but President Mitterrand stated at the funeral the media pressured Beregovoy to commit suicide by their relentless scrutiny of Beregovoy's financial activities.