Charles Pasqua

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Charles Victor Pasqua (18 April 1927Template:Spnd29 June 2015) was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur.

Early life and family background

Pasqua was born on 18 April 1927 in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes.<ref name="frenchsenate">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="libelancien">Template:Cite web</ref> His paternal grandfather was a shepherd from Casevecchie, Corsica<ref name="corsematinmort">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="corsematinlevieuxlion">Template:Cite web</ref> and he could speak Corsican fluently.<ref name="lemondemort">Template:Cite web</ref> As of 1987, his cousin served as the mayor of Casevecchie.<ref>Pasqua en Corse, Institut national de l'audiovisuel, 14 June 1987 Template:In lang</ref>

During World War II, Pasqua joined the French Resistance at the age of sixteen.<ref name="corsematinmort"/>

He subsequently received his Baccalauréat, followed by a degree in Law.<ref name="lemondemort"/>

Business career

From 1952 to 1971 Pasqua worked for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages (most notably pastis), starting as a salesman.<ref name="lemondemort"/><ref name="sfgateinterior">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1971, he founded Euralim, also known as Europe-Alimentation, an importer of Americano, a cocktail made by the Italian company Gancia.<ref name="lenouvelobs">Quand les RG scrutaient Pasqua chez Ricard, Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 January 2002 Template:In lang</ref>

Politics

In 1947, Pasqua helped create the section of the Gaullist Party RPF movement for the Alpes-Maritimes.<ref name="lemondemort"/> With Jacques Foccart and Achille Peretti, he was the co-founder of the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) in 1959 to counter the terrorist actions of the OAS during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962).<ref name="lemondemort"/> The SAC would be charged with the underground actions of the Gaullist movement and participated in the organization of the 30 May 1968 Gaullist counter-demonstration.<ref name="lemondemort"/><ref name="libegilles">Template:Cite web</ref>

From 1968 to 1973, Pasqua was deputy to the French National Assembly for the Hauts-de-Seine département for the UDR party, of which he was a leading member from 1974 to 1976.<ref name="lemondemort"/> He helped Jacques Chirac to take the lead of the party and participated in its transformation into the Rally for the Republic (RPR). Counsellor of Jacques Chirac alongside Marie-France Garaud, he was in charge of the organisation of Chirac's campaign for the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand (1981–1995). As such, he is considered to be Chirac's mentor in politics.<ref name="lemondemort"/>

From 1981 to 1986 Pasqua was senator for the Hauts-de-Seine, then president of the RPR group in the Senate.<ref name="frenchsenate"/> From 1986 to 1988 he was Interior Minister (in charge of law enforcement). In 1992, he called a vote against the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. He became Interior Minister again from 1993 to 1995, and supported the candidacy of Edouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election. He is mostly remembered for having pushed a series of anti-immigration laws (lois Pasqua), and for his declaration "we will terrorize the terrorists."<ref name="lemondemort"/><ref name="libegilles"/>

Pasqua headed the Rally for France (RPF), a sovereigntist (Eurosceptic) party, for a while in association with Philippe de Villiers.<ref name="lemondemort"/> At the 1999 European Parliament election, their list got ahead of the RPR list. He served as the President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine from 1988 to 2004.<ref name="sfgateinterior"/> In 2004, he was elected senator by an electoral college.

In 2005, a US Senate report accused him, along with the British Respect politician George Galloway, of profiting illegally from the UN's oil-for-food scheme.<ref>US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: "Report on oil allocations granted to Charles Pasqua & George Galloway", BBC News, 12 May 2005</ref> He and other French defendants were cleared of all charges in 2013 by a Paris court.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2008, Pasqua was convicted of illegal lobbying in the Mitterrand–Pasqua affair during his time serving as French Interior Minister. Sentenced in 2009 to serve one year of a three-year jail term,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he was acquitted on appeal in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life and death

Pasqua was married to Jeanne Joly, from Quebec, Canada.<ref name="lemondemort"/> They had a son, Template:Ill, who died in February 2015.<ref name="corsematinmort"/><ref name="lemondemort"/>

He died of a heart attack on 29 June 2015 at the Foch Hospital in Suresnes, near Paris.<ref name="corsematinmort"/><ref name="lepoint">Template:Cite web</ref>