Roland Dumas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Roland Dumas
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Dumas in 1989
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| President of the Constitutional Council | |
| In office 8 March 1995 – 29 February 2000 |
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| Appointed by | François Mitterrand |
| Preceded by | Robert Badinter |
| Succeeded by | Yves Guéna |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 10 May 1988 – 28 March 1993 |
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| President | François Mitterrand |
| Prime Minister | Michel Rocard Édith Cresson Pierre Bérégovoy |
| Preceded by | Jean-Bernard Raimond |
| Succeeded by | Alain Juppé |
| Minister of External Affairs | |
| In office 7 December 1984 – 20 March 1986 |
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| President | François Mitterrand |
| Prime Minister | Laurent Fabius |
| Preceded by | Claude Cheysson |
| Succeeded by | Jean-Bernard Raimond |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 August 1922 Limoges, France |
| Died | 3 July 2024 (aged 101) |
| Political party | Socialist Party |
| Alma mater | Sciences Po London School of Economics |
| Signature |  |
Roland Dumas ( (23 August 1922 – 3 July 2024) was a French lawyer and Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. He was also President of the Constitutional Council from 1995 to 2000.
Biography
Youth
Roland Dumas was the son of Elisabeth Lecanuet (1900-1964) and Georges Dumas, a civil servant in Limoges's region and Socialist resistant to the German Occupation during the Second World War shot at by the Gestapo, he conveyed weapons for the Resistance. He was arrested after organizing a boycott of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra by French students. After the war, he completed his law and political science studies in the Ecole libre des sciences politiques and the London School of Economics.
As a journalist and lawyer, he defended Jean Mons, Secretary-General of the Defence Committee, from charges of negligence in a case where Mons's assistant was accused of passing secrets of national security to communists. In this, he became close to François Mitterrand, president of the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR) party, himself suspected in the same scandal.
Politics
In 1956, he was elected deputy for Haute-Vienne department under the UDSR banner. He lost his seat in the 1958 legislative election, which followed the return of General Charles de Gaulle to power. He came back into the French National Assembly between 1967 and 1968 as representative of Corrèze department. As a member of the renewed Socialist Party (PS) led by Mitterrand, he became deputy for Gironde in 1973, then for Dordogne on the occasion of the "pink wave" of 1981. In 1974, he acted as defence lawyer for Hilarion Capucci, who was prosecuted in Israel on charges of smuggling weapons into the country for the PLO.
When President Mitterrand appointed Laurent Fabius as Prime Minister in July 1984, Dumas joined the cabinet as Minister of European Affairs. Five months later, he replaced Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson. He remained in this position until the Socialist defeat in the March 1986 legislative election. Nevertheless, he returned to the Quai d'Orsay after the re-election of Mitterrand in May 1988, until the PS defeat in the March 1993 legislative elections. He was the French Foreign Minister during the collapse of the Soviet Block, the Gulf War, and the negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty.
After losing reelection to the French National Assembly in 1993, he was nominated President of the Constitutional Council in 1995. Under his presidency, the body argued in favour of complete judicial immunity for the French President.
Roland Dumas was a member of the Emergency Committee for Iraq. He resigned from the Presidency of the Constitutional Council in January 1999.
Personal life and death
Dumas turned 100 in August 2022, and died on 3 July 2024, at the age of 101, just 7 weeks before his 102nd birthday.
Political career
President of the Constitutional Council of France : 1995–2000 (Resignation).
Governmental functions
Minister for European Affairs : 1983–1984.
Minister of External Relations : 1984–1986.
Government spokesman : June–December 1984.
Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1988–1993.
Electoral mandates
National Assembly of France
Member of the National Assembly of France for Haute-Vienne : 1956–1958. Elected in 1956.
Member of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze : 1967–1968. Elected in 1967.
Member of the National Assembly of France for Dordogne : 1981–1983 (Became minister in 1983) / 1986–1988 (Became minister in 1988). Elected in 1981, reelected in 1986, 1988.
See also
In Spanish: Roland Dumas para niños
