Édith Cresson (1934-present) is an outspoken and controversial figure: she was notably the first woman to hold the office of the Prime Minister of France.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s Politician is an outspoken and controversial figure: she was notably the first woman to hold the office of the Prime Minister of France, though she only held the title for 10 months. She held a diverse set of titles throughout her political career, and drew attention for her incendiary comments on French minorities. She’s perhaps best known for the scandals of favoritism and financial corruption that marked her final years in politics. Please welcome Edith Cresson.
Edith was born on January 27, 1934, in a wealthy Parisian suburb. The daughter of a senior civil servant, her early years did much to prepare her for a future in politics. She learned fluent English from her nanny growing up and attended the School of Advanced Commercial Studies. She eventually graduated with a doctorate in demography. In 1959, she married Jacques Cresson, an executive with the automaker Peugeot.
Once out of school, Edith joined what would later become the Socialist Party in France. There, she met Francois Mitterrand, who would go on to become the first left-wing President under France’s Fifth Republic. Edith worked on his first presidential campaign in 1965. Though unsuccessful, Edith found both a place in politics and an ally in Francois.
Edith ran her own race for a parliamentary seat in 1975. She lost this first attempt, but was elected mayor of Thure, a commune in Western France, in 1977. Four years later, she was elected to the European Parliament. She served there until 1981, when Francois assumed the French Presidency.
Edith was appointed France’s first female Agriculture Minister. A year later, she was replaced and moved to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism. Reassignment would become a trend in Edith’s career. Over the nearly two decades she worked under Francois, Edith served in four different ministries and held a variety of municipal mayoral titles.
In 1988, as Minister of European Affairs, Edith began to openly criticize then-Prime Minister Michel Rocard for his right-wing economics. Amid decreasing popularity, Rocard resigned in 1991. On May 15th of that year, Mitterand appointed Edith to the position, making her the first woman Prime Minister of France.
Edith spent a tumultuous year in office. She was able to pass a few social reforms, including the Urban Framework Act of 1991, which required cities to provide living conditions that would, quote, “foster social cohesion” and, quote, “enable conditions of segregation to be avoided.” She also passed laws improving the accessibility of buildings, giving the public wider access to courts, and protecting water quality.
During her year in office, however, Edith also gained infamy for her controversial and often inflammatory remarks. She used racist language to describe Japanese trading policies she didn’t agree with and refused to retract her comments when asked. She also criticized the US, Germany, and the UK for male homosexuality, which she called an “Anglo-Saxon problem.”
Edith’s outspokenness and politics made her a polarizing figure. Accompanied by rising unemployment rates and a general unpopularity for Socialists in the 1992 elections, Edith left after less than a year in office.
In 1995, Mitterand appointed Edith to the European Commission for science, research, and education. There, Edith found herself once again under fire for her controversial actions.
Edith attempted to appoint a close friend named Philippe Berthelot to her cabinet as a personal adviser. Two issues barred her from doing so: first, Edith’s cabinet was already fully staffed when she took her place on the commission, and, secondly, at 66 years old, Berthelot was considered too old to be appointed as a member of the cabinet. As a workaround, Edith appointed him as a “visiting scientist,” a position meant to last 24 months. Instead, Berthelot worked as a personal adviser and remained in the position for 2.5 years. In 1999, the Court of First Instance in Brussels opened a criminal investigation into the situation, but the case was dropped in 2004.
Edith’s second scandal came to a head in the 2006 case, “European Commission vs. Edith Cresson.” During her time as commissioner, the commission found her guilty of not reporting completely truthful numbers in a failing youth program, thus losing track of significant amounts of money. Those allegations of fraud and corruption led her entire committee to resign in 1999.
Today, Edith is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, a worldwide group comprised of women leaders past and present. Though her term was short, she remains the first and only woman to have served as prime minister of France.
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