15 Facts About Michel Poniatowski

Michel Poniatowski was a French politician, member of a legitimized line of Polish princely Poniatowski family.

Michel Poniatowski was a founder of the Independent Republicans and a part of the administration for President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Michel Poniatowski was a founder and honorary president of the Union for French Democracy.

Michel Poniatowski attended the Ecole nationale d'administration for finance and began his career in Morocco, later becoming a finance attache in Washington, DC in 1956.

Michel Poniatowski took a founding part in the Independent Republicans party, and became an RI deputy for the Val-d'Oise in 1967, as well as the general secretary of the Confederation of the Independents before taking the presidency of the party's successor, the Republican Party, in 1975.

Michel Poniatowski was elected mayor of L'Isle-Adam in 1971.

Michel Poniatowski was then named Minister of Public Health and Social Security from 5 April 1973 to 27 May 1974, under the government of Pierre Messmer.

Michel Poniatowski succeeded Jacques Chirac on 24 May 1974 and served in the post until 1977.

Michel Poniatowski was a founding member in 1978 of the Union for a French Democracy, the liberal and Christian democrat party that backed Valery Giscard d'Estaing and tried to rival Chirac's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic.

Until 1981, Michel Poniatowski was ambassador and personal representative of Giscard.

Michel Poniatowski was an MEP from 1979 to 1989 and presided in the European Parliament over the Commission on Development and Cooperation and then the Commission on Energy, Research and Technology.

Michel Poniatowski approved in September 1983 the merger of the electoral list RPR-UDF with the far-right National Front, a party headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, during the partial municipal election of Dreux.

Michel Poniatowski was then senator of the Val-d'Oise from 1989 to 1995 and continued to advocate in favour of electoral agreements with the National Front by taking as model the relationship between the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.

Michel Poniatowski finally retreated from political life in 1999 and was replaced as mayor of L'Isle-Adam by his son Axel Michel Poniatowski.

Michel Poniatowski then died three years later, on 15 January 2002.