13 Facts About Gaston Defferre

Gaston Defferre was a French Socialist politician.

Gaston Defferre served as mayor of Marseille for 33 years until his death in 1986.

Gaston Defferre was much more successful in promoting Francois Mitterrand as leader of the Socialist Party in 1971.

Gaston Defferre held a series of ministerial portfolios after the Socialist victory in 1981, especially as minister of state for the interior and decentralization.

Gaston Defferre was a formidable political force in the South-East, where he owned the major centre-left newspaper Le Provencal and later acquired the right-wing daily Le Meridional.

Gaston Defferre served as Merchant Marine Minister, then Overseas Minister, and laid the groundwork for the end of French colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa through Loi-cadre Gaston Defferre.

But, failing to create an SFIO-MRP-Radical Party federation, Gaston Defferre had to give way to Francois Mitterrand, whose preferred strategy for the Socialists was the formation of a left-wing coalition including the PCF.

Gaston Defferre was a participant in the last duel in France that took place in 1967 when Gaston Defferre insulted Rene Ribiere at the French parliament and was challenged to a duel fought with swords.

Ribiere demanded an apology, Gaston Defferre refused, so Ribiere demanded satisfaction by duel.

In 1969 Gaston Defferre was the Socialist candidate for the French presidency.

The failure of Gaston Defferre prompted the birth of the new Socialist Party and buried the idea of an alliance with the centre-right.

Later, when Mitterrand became president, Gaston Defferre served as Mitterrand's interior minister from 1981 to 1984.

Gaston Defferre was the architect of the 1982 decentralization reforms.