Former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre dies

PARIS: Former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre, an economist who also served as a European commissioner, died on Saturday, his family said. He was 83.   

Barre was plucked from the obscurity of being a backroom technocrat and thrust into frontline politics when then President Valery Giscard d'Estaing made him prime minister in August 1976, dubbing him 'France's best economist'.   

Taking over the premiership from Jacques Chirac, Barre held the post until the victory of the Socialists under Francois Mitterrand in 1981.   

He enforced a tough anti-inflation plan, slashing living standards and cutting thousands of jobs in loss-making industries such as steel and coal.   

After his days in office he defended his record, earning a reputation among critics for obstinacy and arrogance.   

"The French must understand that my policies were right. It's not up to me to change," Barre once said.   

He had been ill for some time and went into hospital in April to receive treatment for a heart condition.   

"Mr Raymond Barre died this night, Aug. 25, at Val-de-Grace hospital," the family said in a statement.   

Barre was born in the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on April 12, 1924, into a well-to-do Roman Catholic family.       

HIGHEST EXAMINATION   

He moved to France in 1946 to study economics in Paris and passed the Aggregation, France's highest academic examination.   

Seemingly set for a career as an economics professor, Barre was invited to become a senior official in the Industry Ministry from 1959-62 during President Charles de Gaulle's era in power.   

After another spell at university, he was asked to serve with the European Economic Community, a forerunner of the European Union.

He was commissioner for economic and financial affairs from 1967-73.    But a political career was still far from his mind, and he turned down an offer of a safe parliamentary seat in 1973.   

He joined the cabinet for the first time in 1976 as foreign trade minister under Chirac, then serving his first term as head of government.   

When Chirac resigned, it was the then largely unknown Barre who was called on to fill the gap.   

Deciding to build a political career to match his responsibilities, Barre ran for parliament for the first time in 1978, winning a seat in France's second city Lyon.   

Barre, who married and had two sons, enjoyed listening to Mozart and watching Westerns.