Gaston Defferre

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Gaston Defferre (September 14, 1910 - May 7, 1986, Marseille) was a French socialist politician.

Lawyer, member of the Socialist party SFIO (French Section of the Workers' International), he led a Resistance Socialist group during World War II. A long-standing member of parliament (1945-1958, 1962-1986), he served also for many years as mayor of Marseille (1944-1945, 1953-1986). He was considered like the "boss" of the Socialists in the South-East.

He was Merchant Marine Minister (1950-1952) then Overseas Minister (1956-1957). He prepared the end of the French colonialism in Africa.

In his region, he faced with an important Communist party and conflicted with it. That's why he was allied with the non-Gaullist center-right. In the same way, he advocated a national alliance between the SFIO and the Chritian Democratic party MRP (Popular Republican Movement). Before the 1965 presidential election, L'Express did the identikit of the best center-left candidate under the name of "Mister X". It corresponded with Defferre's profile. But, failing to create a SFIO-MRP-Radical Party federation, he renounced.

However, he was the Socialist candidate in 1969 for the French Presidency, with the support of ex-Prime-Minister Pierre Mendès-France, who would have been Prime Minister again had Defferre been elected. But he was soundly defeated, scoring only 5% of the vote, the lowest score for a French socialist candidate ever. The failure of Defferre prompted the birth of the new Socialist Party and scraped the project of alliance with the center-right.

Main opponent of Guy Mollet in the party, leader of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, he helped François Mitterrand to take the lead during the Epinay Congress (1971), in spite of Mitterrand's strategy of alliance with the Communists. He later served as Mitterrand's Interior Minister from 1981 to 1984. He was the architect of the 1982 law about decentralization. Town and Country Planning Minister until 1986, he died in office as Mayor of Marseille.