Jacques Fournier, who was secretary general of the government under François Mitterrand and president of Gaz de France and then of the SNCF from 1988 to 1994, died on Saturday at the age of 93, AFP learned from the railway group.
“
He was a great president of SNCF, a great architect of the decentralization and regionalization of the company.
A man of great humanity who embodied and defended public service “à la française”,
”greeted Jean-Pierre Farandou, the current CEO of the public rail group, in a written statement to AFP.
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"
We are losing an eminent servant of the State and a man of conviction
", reacted the former socialist minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement, former leader of CERES (Center for Socialist Studies, Research and Education) - the left current of the PS - to which Jacques Fournier also belonged.
Secretary General of the Government under Mitterrand
Born in Épinal on May 5, 1929 in the Vosges, Jacques Fournier was a graduate in Sciences and a former student of the ENA (1951 to 1953).
Councilor of State, he is the author, with Nicole Questiaux, of a voluminous
Treaty of the social
(1976) which formed generations of students.
He joined the PS at the time of the famous Epinay Congress of June 1971 which saw François Mitterrand take power from the Socialist Party with the support in particular of CERES.
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In 1982, President François Mitterrand appointed him secretary general of the government, a position he held until 1986. He then chaired the public company Gaz de France from 1986 to 1988 before taking the head of a traumatized SNCF the next day. accidents at the Gare de Lyon (56 dead) and at the Gare de l'Est (1 dead).
Under the chairmanship of Jacques Fournier, the TGV Atlantique was extended to Le Mans. This train broke a new speed record of 513.3 km / h on May 18, 1990. In 1991, the adoption of a European directive introduced competition for rail. "
We have always shared, beyond sometimes different views, a community of thought based on the requirement of social justice, the service of the general interest, the sense of the State
", writes Jean-Pierre Chevènement in a communicated.