Ex-French PM Raymond Barre dead at 83

August 25, 2007

Paris, France - Raymond Barre, the French prime minister for five years from 1976 to 1981, has died in Paris at the age of 83.

Barre, an economist who also served as a European commissioner, succeeded Jacques Chirac in the post, serving under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing who called him "France's best economist".

He also served as a European commissioner and mayor of Lyon.

Seen as arrogant by some, he said in later life: "The French must understand that my policies were right."

Barre died in a Parisian hospital. He had been receiving treatment for a heart condition since April.

"France has just lost one of its best servants," Giscard d'Estaing said in a statement released on Saturday by French news agency AFP.

"Raymond Barre was a statesman who pursued no personal goal but sought to ensure the well-being of our country through exceptional competence and dedicated work."

He was little known until his appointment as prime minister, having pursued an academic career as an economist, but he did serve from 1967-73 as commissioner for economic and financial affairs in the European Economic Community, a forerunner of the EU.

As head of the government, he cut thousands of jobs in the loss-making steel and coal industries.

His tenure ended in 1981 with the Socialist victory that brought Francois Mitterrand to the presidency.

He stood for president himself in 1988, winning 16.53% of the vote in the first round but losing out to Mitterrand and Chirac.

After serving as mayor of Lyon from 1995-2001, he retired from active politics in June 2002.

Raymond Barre was born in the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on April 12th 1924, into a well-to-do Roman Catholic family.

Married and with two sons, he enjoyed listening to Mozart and watching Westerns, Reuters news agency notes.