Former socialist minister Paul Quilès is dead

He was a key figure in Mitterrandism.

Paul Quilès died at the age of 79, announced one of his daughters, Emmanuelle Quilès.

“My father passed away this (Friday) morning in Paris.

He fought to the end as he always had done in his life for others, ”she added.

The former campaign director of François Mitterrand in 1981 and former minister in the 1980s and 1990s, notably of the Interior and Defense, was hospitalized.

His death was announced in error a few days ago by a relative, the president of the departmental council of Tarn, Christophe Ramond, information taken up by the press, including Le Parisien.

Mayor of Cordes-sur-Ciel (Tarn) from 1995 to 2020, elected in the first round during four consecutive terms, he was deputy on several occasions, in Paris then in the Tarn, where Jean Jaurès was born.

"Make heads fall"

Son of an officer and a teacher, Paul Quilès was born in Saint-Denis-du-Sig, in French Algeria.

After Polytechnique, he worked until 1978 as an engineer in the energy sector with the oil company Shell.

At the same time, this left Catholic, former Christian student youth (JEC), entered the PS in 1972 and militated in the Mitterrandist current.

His political rise took off in 1981, when he became the director of the presidential campaign for François Mitterrand who, in May, acceded to the Élysée.

Piercing blue eyes and a rare smile, this strict-looking Polytechnician had been at the center of a lively controversy that year after clumsy remarks, exploited by the right, on the need to "knock heads" once the left came to power.

In October, during the Socialist Congress of Valence, he launched, referring to the senior administration: “We must not be content to say evasively, like Robespierre (…) in 1794:

.

You have to say which ones and say it quickly!

".

The right is indignant against the one it will nickname from then on "Robespaul", argument widely used against him in 1983 when he will seek, in vain, the town hall of Paris against Jacques Chirac.

An ardent defender of nuclear power

Appointed Minister of Housing in 1983, Paul Quilès was promoted to the head of an enlarged Ministry of Tourism in 1984. From September 1985 to March 1986, he succeeded Charles Hernu at the Ministry of Defense, forced to resign following the 'Rainbow Warrior' case, the name of the Greenpeace ship sabotaged by the French secret services in New Zealand.

He was later found Minister of Posts and Space in the Rocard government (1988-91).

He was then again appointed to Housing (and Transport), before obtaining the Interior portfolio, in 1992-93.

The father of three children was the president of the organization “Initiatives for nuclear disarmament”, aimed at “building a more secure world”.

He had written, alone or in collaboration, three books on the question, "Nuclear, a French lie", "Arrêtez la bombe!"

"And" The nuclear illusion ".