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Former French PM Pierre Messmer dies

30 August 2007 08:28 (UTC +04:00)

Former French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer, a faithful Gaullist, has died at the age of 91, APA reports quoting AFP.
Messmer, who was prime minister under President Georges Pompidou from 1972 till 1974, died in a Paris hospital.
President Nicolas Sarkozy called Messmer one of France’s "greatest servants" and said "the entire nation bows before his memory."
"Pierre Messmer was first of all a magnificent combatant who was among the first to rally behind Gen. de Gaulle," Sarkozy said in a statement.
Messmer entered the French Resistance in 1940, fleeing Nazi-occupied France for England on a a cargo ship. From there, he participated in major campaigns in North Africa and elsewhere and stormed the beaches of Normandy in June 1944.
He entered politics in the late 1960s and was named by Pompidou in July 1972 to replace outgoing Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who had resigned.
Upon Pompidou’s death in April 1974, Messmer was widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate, but he was outmaneuvered by his rivals and later took a low profile in the political scene.
Messmer is France’s second former prime minister to die in less than a week. Raymond Barre, prime minister from 1976 to 1981, died Saturday. /APA/