Raymond Barre

Barre was born April 12, 1924 in the year of the Rat and under the sign of Aries. He passed away August 25, 2007 in Paris, France. His home and birthplace was on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

Barre was a vice president of the European Commission as well as the Commissioner for Economics and Financial Affairs under three French presidents. He served as the Prime Minister under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 through 1981. In 1988 Barre vied for the French presidency but came in behind Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand.

Barre ran for and won the mayorship in Lyon. He served for one term and when his current parliamentary term in the French National Assembly ended, he retired from politics.

Barre's political career was confronted with economic crisis. He developed a policy to cut inflation and public spending and instigated industrial restructuring. Barre was not known to use diplomatic language and was heard to say to poster carrying protestors, "instead of grousing, you should work hard." His career was additionally marked by remarks that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. Yet at a trial for collaborationist Maurice Papon, Barre asserted that he was "always on the side of the Holocaust's survivors to condemn Barbary .."

Barre was the only well-known French prime minister as well as the Head of the Department of Ministry and Finance to be a non-participating official in his political party. It was his contention that ministers needed to keep distance from the political microcosm.

Barre's greatest successes included drafting proposals for economic reform and monetary union. It was Barre's utmost accomplishment to institute austerity measures to reduce government expenditures and inflation control. His textbook Economie politique (1956) continually appears in revised editions for economic studies. Barre was honored with admission as a chevalier to France's Legion of Honour.

Upon his death in 2007, Barre left two sons and his wife Eva Catherine Egedus.