Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Jean-Pierre Raffarin (1948- ), French politician and Prime Minister of France (2002-2005). Raffarin was born in Poitiers, where he was educated at the Lycée Henri IV, and received a diploma from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (Higher School of Trade), Paris. After working as a marketing director for a coffee company, he entered politics in 1976 as a technical adviser to Lionel Stoléru, the minister for manual labour, a post he held until 1981 when he took up a career in public relations. In 1988 Raffarin became chairman of the Chasseneuil-du-Poitou regional council in western France (re-elected in 1992 and 1998). He later served as a Member of the European Parliament (1989-1995) and in 1995 became general secretary of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), a conservative coalition built around the Republican Party. Between 1995 and 1997 he served as minister for small and medium-sized enterprises, trade, and artisan activities in the government of Alain Juppé. When the Juppé government fell in 1997, and a split opened in the UDF, Raffarin joined the free-market Liberal Democracy Party, becoming its vice-president. In the same year Raffarin was elected to the Senate.

In the 2002 presidential elections Raffarin helped run the re-election campaign of Jacques Chirac. On May 6, when Chirac won the presidential run-off with a landslide victory over far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Raffarin was chosen to be prime minister in the interim government, replacing socialist Lionel Jospin. Raffarin’s position as prime minister was confirmed in the subsequent parliamentary elections in June that saw the Union Pour la Majorité Presidentielle (UMP), a coalition of groups supporting Chirac, win an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Raffarin, a low-profile political moderate known for his skills with people, was seen by Chirac as the ideal candidate to tackle the alienation from politics felt by the electorate. It was widely felt that this disenchantment with politics, and the failure of moderates to vote in large numbers, had been partly responsible for the strong showing of Le Pen in the first round of voting.

Raffarin made constitutional reform a priority of his government, introducing a bill to devolve power away from Paris to local authorities. The legislation would give them responsibility for economic development, national roads, tourism, and further education, and enable them to hold referendums. The bill aimed to bring people closer to decision-making processes and restore faith in the political system. Raffarin also set out, in what was called “Agenda 2006”, a series of measures to address the increasing burden of public sector spending. To this end he proposed pension reform and cuts in spending on the state health service. The unpopularity of these plans became clear in regional elections held in March 2004. The UMP trailed far behind the Socialists, even in Raffarin’s home region, Poitou-Charentes. Despite these results, Raffarin was re-appointed prime minister by President Chirac, and he promised to press on with his reforms. Among these reforms was the amendment of a law passed by the previous Socialist government that had limited the working week to 35 hours. Raffarin stopped short of repealing the law while introducing more flexibility, though these limited changes provoked large demonstrations in France in February, 2005.

After President Chirac announced that a referendum would be held in France on the proposed constitution for the European Union, Raffarin joined the campaign to win public support for the plan. However, the unpopularity of his government contributed to the defeat of the “yes” campaign when the vote was held in May 2005, and Raffarin resigned shortly afterwards. He was succeeded by Dominique de Villepin, who had served as a minister in Raffarin’s government.