1.
Prime Minister of France
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The French Prime Minister in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. During the Third and Fourth Republics, the head of government position was called President of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister proposes a list of ministers to the President of the Republic. Decrees and decisions of the Prime Minister, like almost all decisions, are subject to the oversight of the administrative court system. Few decrees are taken after advice from the Council of State, all prime ministers defend the programs of their ministry, and make budgetary choices. The extent to which those decisions lie with the Prime Minister or President depends upon whether they are of the same party, manuel Valls was appointed to lead the government in a cabinet reshuffle in March 2014, after the ruling Socialists suffered a bruising defeat in local elections. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic, the President can choose whomever they want. On the other hand, because the National Assembly does have the power to force the resignation of the government, for example, right after the legislative election of 1986, President François Mitterrand appointed Jacques Chirac prime minister. Chirac was a member of the RPR and an opponent of Mitterrand. Despite the fact that Mitterrands own Socialist Party was the largest party in the Assembly, the RPR had an alliance with the UDF, which gave them a majority. Such a situation, where the President is forced to work with a minister who is an opponent, is called a cohabitation. So far, Édith Cresson is the woman to have ever held the position of prime minister. Aristide Briand holds the record for most nomination as Prime Minister with 11 between 1909 and 1929 with some terms as short as 26 days, other members of Government are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can engage the responsibility of his or her Government before the National Assembly and this process consists of placing a bill before the Assembly, and either the Assembly overthrows the Government, or the bill is passed automatically. In addition to ensuring that the Government still has support in the House, the Prime Minister may also submit a bill that has not been yet signed into law to the Constitutional Council. Before he is allowed to dissolve the Assembly, the President has to consult the Prime Minister, the office of the prime minister, in its current form, dates from the formation of the French Third Republic. Under the French Constitutional Laws of 1875, he was imbued with the powers as his British counterpart. In practice, however, the minister was a fairly weak figure. Most notably, the legislature had the power to force the cabinet out of office by a vote of censure
2.
French Ministry for the Economy and Finance
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The exact name of the ministry has changed over time, and has included the terms economy, industry, finances, or employment through history. By delegation of the Prime Minister, he also the Public Services. He is responsible with their colleagues for Health, Youth and Sport and for Labour, Labour Relations, see, http, //www. minefi. gouv. fr/directions_services/sircom/ministere/organigramme_mbcpfp. htm The Ministry of Finance is situated in Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. The building extends to the Seine River, where there is an embarcadero with fast river boats for faster liaisons to other government agencies and that is why the French media often refer to it as simply Bercy. The sentence the Bercy Fortress refers to the Ministry as a department with obtuse civil servants. That is emphasized by the look of the building. For evident practical reasons, the two share the building and some common services that were under the former ministry of Economy, Finances
3.
Jacques Chirac
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Jacques René Chirac is a French politician, who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 1995 to 2007. Chirac served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976, from 1986 to 1988, Chirac occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and President of the French Republic. Chiracs internal policies initially included lower tax rates, the removal of controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism. After pursuing these policies as Prime Minister, Chirac changed his method, Jacques Chirac has emerged as an improbable icon of retro taste and a figure of public affection. On 15 December 2011, the Paris court declared him guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public confidence, and gave Chirac a two-year suspended prison sentence. Chirac, born in the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire clinic, is the son of Abel François Marie Chirac, an executive for an aircraft company, and Marie-Louise Valette. His great grandparents on both sides were peasants, but his two grandfathers were teachers from Sainte-Féréole in Corrèze, according to Chirac, his name originates from the langue doc, that of the troubadours, therefore that of poetry. He was educated in Paris at the Cours Hattemer, a private school and he then attended the Lycée Carnot and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. After his baccalauréat, he served for three months as a sailor on a coal-transporter, Chirac played rugby union for Brives youth team, and also played at university level. He played no.8 and second row, in 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, with whom he had two daughters, Laurence and Claude. Chirac is the grandfather of Martin Rey-Chirac by the relationship of Claude with French judoka Thierry Rey, Jacques and Bernadette Chirac also have a foster daughter, Anh Dao Traxel. Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle, Chirac started to pursue a civil career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the French Communist Party, sold copies of LHumanité, in 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired Stockholm Appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons – which led him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States. Chirac trained as a military officer in armoured cavalry at Saumur. He then volunteered to fight in the Algerian War, using connections to be sent despite the reservations of his superiors. His superiors did not want to make him an officer because they suspected he had communist leanings, after leaving the ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant in the Court of Auditors. In April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. This appointment launched Chiracs political career, Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé, and referred to him as my bulldozer for his skill at getting things done
4.
President of France
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The President of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of the French Fifth Republic. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister, the current President of France is François Hollande, who took office on 15 May 2012. Hollande has announced that he stand down in the upcoming 2017 French presidential election. President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, at that time, there was no limit on the number of terms, so Chirac could have run again, but chose not to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007, following a further change, the Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic,2008, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a two terms. In order to be admitted as a candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials. These officials must be from at least 30 départements or overseas collectivities, furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate. There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors, spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending, at approximately 20 million euros, if the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden but official time is given to candidates on public TV, an independent agency regulates election and party financing. After the president is elected, he or she goes through an investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs. The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system, unlike many other European presidents, the French President is quite powerful. The president holds the nations most senior office, and outranks all other politicians, the presidents greatest power is his/her ability to choose the prime minister. When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, when the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the choice of the President. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower, among the powers of the government, The president promulgates laws
5.
Georges Pompidou
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Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968—the longest tenure in the positions history—and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974. He had long been a top aide to president Charles de Gaulle, as president, he was a moderate conservative who repaired Frances relationship with the United States, and maintained positive relations with the newly-independent former colonies in Africa. He strengthened his party, the Union of Democrats for the Republic. Pompidous presidency is held in high esteem by French political commentators. Pompidou was born in the commune of Montboudif, in the department of Cantal in central France and he first taught literature at the lycée Henri IV in Paris until hired in 1953 by Guy de Rothschild to work at Rothschild. In 1956, he was appointed the general manager, a position he held until 1962. Later, he was hired by Charles de Gaulle to manage the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Down syndrome. Jacques Chirac served as an aide to Prime Minister Pompidou and recalled, The man gave the appearance of being secretive, wily, however, it was primarily his intelligence, culture, and competence that conferred indisputable authority on him and commanded respect. Naturally reserved, little given to outbursts, Pompidou did not forge very close ties with his colleagues. His nomination was controversial because he was not a member of the National Assembly, in October 1962, he was defeated in a vote of no-confidence, but de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly. The Gaullists won the election and Pompidou was reappointed as Prime Minister. In 1964, he was faced with a miners strike and he led the 1967 legislative campaign of the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic to a narrow victory. Pompidou was widely regarded as being responsible for the resolution of the student uprising of May 1968. His strategy was to break the coalition of students and workers by negotiating with the trade-unions, until this crisis, he was the Prime Minister of a quiet and prosperous France. However, during the events of May 1968, disagreements arose between Pompidou and de Gaulle, Pompidou did not understand why the President did not inform him of his departure to Baden-Baden on May 29. Their relationship, until then very good, would be strained from then on, Pompidou led and won the 1968 legislative campaign, overseeing a tremendous victory of the Gaullist Party. Nevertheless, in due to his actions during the May 1968 crisis. Pompidou announced his candidature for the Presidency in January 1969, some weeks later, his wifes name was mentioned in the Markovic scandal, thus appearing to confirm her husbands status as a cuckold
6.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
7.
Union for a Popular Movement
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The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was renamed and succeeded by the Republicans, Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of the UMP, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by PS candidate François Hollande in a run-off five years later. After the November 2012 party congress, the UMP experienced internal fractioning and was plagued by scandals which forced its president, Jean-François Copé. After his re-election as UMP president in November 2014, Sarkozy put forward an amendment to change the name of the party into The Republicans, since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1981 and 1988 legislative elections, before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the centrist Union for French Democracy formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, who was eventually elected, and supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR, before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move. After Chiracs re-election, in order to contest the election jointly. It was renamed Union for a Popular Movement and as established as a permanent organisation. In the UMP four major French political families were represented, Gaullism, republicanism, Christian democracy. Chiracs close ally Alain Juppé became the partys first president at the founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79. 42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the partys Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, and three other candidates. During the partys earlier years, it was marked by tensions, in the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP also suffered another heavy blow, winning 16. 6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, and only 16 seats. Juppé resigned the presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy rapidly announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the presidency with 85. 09% of the votes against 9. 1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5. 82% for Christine Boutin. Having gained control of what had been Chiracs party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery, however, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election
8.
French presidential election, 1995
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Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic. The Socialist incumbent president, François Mitterrand, who had been in office since 1981 and he was 78, had terminal cancer, and his party had lost the 1993 legislative election in a landslide defeat. Since then, he had been cohabiting with a cabinet led by Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. The competition within the right between Balladur and Chirac was a feature of the campaign. Meanwhile, the left was weakened by scandals and disappointments regarding Mitterrands presidency along with the Unemployment rate hovering around 10%, in June 1994, former Prime Minister Michel Rocard was dismissed as leader of the Socialist Party after the partys poor showing in the European Parliament elections. Then, Jacques Delors decided not to stand as a candidate because he disagreed with the re-alignment on the left orchestrated by new party leader Henri Emmanuelli. Former party leader and education minister Lionel Jospin was chosen by PS members as the candidate in a primary election pitting him against Emmanuelli. He promised to restore the credibility and moral reputation of his party, the economy was also still struggling with a depression which began in mid-1990, and the governments policies were widely blamed for both the recession and its slow recovery. The French Communist Party tried to stop its electoral decline and its new leader Robert Hue campaigned against king money and wanted to represent a renewed communism. He was faced with competition for the far left vote by the Trotskyist candidacy of Arlette Laguiller, both of these candidates had a better result than their parties had in 1988, but came nowhere near being able to participate in the next round. In choosing Dominique Voynet, the Greens opted for their integration with the left, on the far-right, Jean-Marie Le Pen tried to repeat his surprising result that he obtained in the 1988 presidential election. His main rival for the vote was Philippe de Villiers. Both candidates primarily focused over the financial situation, in January 1995, when he announced his candidacy, Balladur was the favourite of the political right. According to the SOFRES polls institute, he held an advantage of 14 points over Chirac and he took advantage of his positive assessment as Prime Minister and advocated a moderately liberal economic policy. Chirac denounced the social fracture and criticised the dominant thought, targeting Balladur, Chirac argued that the pay slip is not the enemy of employment. Indeed, unemployment was the theme of the campaign. From the start of March, Chirac gained ground on Balladur in the polls, another factor that contributed to Balladurs fall in popularity was the revelation of a bugging scandal which had implicated Balladur. Chiracs campaign slogan was La France pour tous, Balladurs Believe in France, Lionel Jospin won the first round, in what appeared to be an electoral recovery for the Socialist Party
9.
Armenians
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Armenians are an ethnic group native to the Armenian Highlands. Armenians constitute the population of Armenia and the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. There is a diaspora of around 5 million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside of modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, Brazil and Syria. With the exceptions of Iran and the former Soviet states, the present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian Genocide, most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a non-Chalcedonian church, which is also the worlds oldest national church. Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus death, due to the efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew, in the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, historically, the name Armenian has come to internationally designate this group of people. It was first used by neighbouring countries of ancient Armenia, the earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I the Great of Persia refers to Urashtu as Armina (in Old Persian, Armina and Harminuya. In Greek, Αρμένιοι Armenians is attested from about the same time, xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. He relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians and it is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. Movses Khorenatsi, the important early medieval Armenian historian, wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram, the Armenian Highland lies in the highlands surrounding Mount Ararat, the highest peak of the region. In the Bronze Age, several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire, Mitanni, soon after Hayasa-Azzi were Arme-Shupria, the Nairi and the Kingdom of Urartu, who successively established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains, yerevan, the modern capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by king Argishti I. T. Gamkrelidze and V. Ivanov proposed the Indo-European homeland around the Armenian Highland, eric P. Hamp in his 2012 Indo-European family tree, groups the Armenian language along with Greek and Ancient Macedonian in the Pontic Indo-European subgroup. In Hamps view the homeland of this subgroup is the northeast coast of the Black Sea and he assumes that they migrated from there southeast through the Caucasus with the Armenians remaining after Batumi while the pre-Greeks proceeded westwards along the southern coast of the Black Sea. However, fresh genetics studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between ~3,000 and ~2,000 b. c
10.
Marseille
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Marseille, also known as Marseilles in English, is a city in France. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region, Marseille is now Frances largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia and it hosted the European Football Championship in 2016, and will be the European Capital of Sport in 2017. The city is home to campuses of Aix-Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris and the centre of the third largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, further east still are the Sainte-Baume, the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the artists colony of lEstaque, further west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion. The airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre, the citys main thoroughfare stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Further out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château dIf, the main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the fountain of Place Castellane. To the south west are the hills of the 7th arrondissement, the railway station—Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles—is north of the Centre Bourse in the 1st arrondissement, it is linked by the Boulevard dAthènes to the Canebière. Marseille has a Mediterranean climate with mild, humid winters and warm to hot, december, January, and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C during the day and 4 °C at night. Marseille is officially the sunniest major city in France with over 2,900 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in France is around 1,950 hours, less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent, over 50% of years do not experience a single snowfall, Massalia, whose name was probably adapted from an existing language related to Ligurian, was the first Greek settlement in France. It was established within modern Marseille around 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The connection between Massalia and the Phoceans is mentioned in Thucydidess Peloponnesian War, he notes that the Phocaean project was opposed by the Carthaginians, the founding of Massalia has also been recorded as a legend. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage, at the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice
11.
Socialist Party (France)
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The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France, and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major political parties in France, along with the Republicans. The Socialist Party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers International in 1969, the PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance. The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate François Mitterrand was elected President of France in the 1981 presidential election, under Mitterrand, the party achieved a governing majority in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993. In 2007, the candidate for the presidential election, Ségolène Royal, was defeated by conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Then, the Socialist party won most of regional and local elections, in 2016, the party had 42,300 members. In 2014, the party had 60,000 members, in 2012 the party had 173,486 members. The defeat of the Paris commune greatly reduced the power and influence of socialist movements in France and its leaders were killed or exiled. Frances first socialist party, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, was founded in 1879 and it was characterised as possibilist because it promoted gradual reforms. Two parties split off from it, in 1882, the French Workers Party of Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, at the same time, the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a symbol of the French revolutionary tradition, created the Central Revolutionary Committee led by Édouard Vaillant. There were also some declared socialist deputies such as Alexandre Millerand, in 1899, the participation of Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseaus cabinet caused a debate about socialist participation in a bourgeois government. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, the two merged in the French Section of the Workers International. Leader of the group and director of the party paper LHumanité. The party was hemmed in between the liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. Together with the Radicals, who wished to install laicism, the SFIO was a component of the Left Block without to sit in the government, in 1906, the General Confederation of Labour trade union claimed its independence from all political parties. The French socialists were strongly anti-war, but following the assassination of Jaurès in 1914 they were unable to resist the wave of militarism which followed the outbreak of World War I and they suffered a severe split over participation in the wartime government of national unity. In 1919 the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections, the right wing, led by Léon Blum, kept the old house and remained in the SFIO. In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Coalition of the Left, the question of the possibility of a government participation with Radicals caused the split of neosocialists at the beginning of the 1930s
12.
French presidential election, 1988
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Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988. In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France, however, in 1986, the right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced to cohabit with a cabinet led by the RPR leader Jacques Chirac. Chirac took responsibility for domestic policy while the President focused on his reserved domain – foreign affairs, moreover, several other prominent candidates opposed the two heads of the executive. Chiracs cabinet advocated liberal-conservative policies, in abolishing the solidarity tax on wealth and it was faced with opposition from social movements, supported covertly by President Mitterrand. Meanwhile, the leadership of Chirac over the right was challenged by the former UDF Prime Minister Raymond Barre, Barre gained some popularity by condemning the principle of the cohabitation, claiming that it is incompatible with the spirit of the Fifth Republic. He appeared as an alternative to the executive duo, in January 1988, when he announced his candidacy, Chirac was credited with 19. 5% in the first round by SOFRES polls institute, against 23% for Barre. But, from the start of February, Chirac benefited from the divisions in the UDF. On the left, the identity of the Socialist candidate was uncertain, Mitterrand said he was not sure he would run, and meanwhile, his internal rival Michel Rocard campaigned for the nomination. The favourite to win the election according to the polls, the incumbent president announced his candidacy at the end of March. He wrote an letter to the French, where he proposed a moderate programme and advocated a united France against the appropriation of the state by a clan, targeting Chirac. He benefited from the decline of the French Communist Party, represented by André Lajoinie, Lajoinie was faced with competition for the far-left vote by a reforming Communist, Pierre Juquin and a Trotskyist, Arlette Laguiller. Meanwhile, the Ecologist Antoine Waechter refused to ally the Greens with either the left or the right, on the far-right, the National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, tried to confirm the FNs good result in the previous legislative election. The TV debate between the two finalists, and protagonists of the cohabitation, was very tense, Mitterrand wanted to show his ascendancy in naming his challenger Mr Prime Minister. Chirac answered, Here, you are not President, and I am not Prime Minister and you will allow that I call you Mr Mitterrand. Mitterrand replied, You are absolutely right, Mr Prime Minister, besides, the two candidates clashed about their attitude to the September 1986 terrorist attacks. François Mitterrand was re-elected President of France, Jacques Chirac resigned from the head of the cabinet. Michel Rocard succeeded him, then the Socialist Party obtained a parliamentary majority
13.
Gaullism
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Serge Berstein writes that Gaullism is neither a doctrine nor a political ideology and cannot be considered either left or right. Gaullism is a peculiarly French phenomenon, without doubt the quintessential French political phenomenon of the twentieth century, lawrence D. Kritzman writes that Gaullism may be seen as a form of French patriotism in the tradition of Jules Michelet. Berstein writes that Gaullism has progressed in stages, The first phase occurred during World War II. In the second phase, Gaullism was a type of opposition to the Fourth French Republic, Gaullists in this period challenged the unstable parliamentary government of the Fourth Republic and advocated its replacement with a president of the republic with preeminent constitutional powers. Since 1969, Gaullism is used to describe those identified as heirs to de Gaulles ideas, the fundamental principle of Gaullism is a certain idea of France as a strong state. This idea appears in de Gaulles War Memoirs, in which he describes France as an indomitable entity, accordingly, de Gaulle urged French unity over divisive partisan quarrels and emphasized French heritage, including both the Ancien Régime and the Revolution. In order to strengthen France, Gaullists also emphasize the need for a strong economy, Gaullism believes, according to Berstein, that it is the imperative of the state, as guardian of the national interest, to give impetus to economic growth and to guide it. Liberal opinion is accepted if it promises more efficiency than planning, as for social justice, so long as its natural distrust of big business can be allayed, it is less a matter of doctrine than a means of upholding stability. To put an end to class struggle, Gaullists hope to use of participation, a nineteenth-century concept of which the general spoke frequently. As part of a state, de Gaulle emphasized the need to base state institutions on a strong executive. This was a departure from the French republican tradition, which emphasized the role of the elected assembly, de Gaulle, during his time in office, sought to establish authority by holding direct universal votes and popular referenda and by directly engaging with the nation. In foreign policy, Gaullists are identified with realism and French exceptionalism, and de Gaulle sought to impose French influence on the global order. Gaullists supported decolonization, which freed France from the burden of empire and this was reflected in de Gaulles resolution of the Algeria crisis, which was strongly influenced by de Gaulles realpolitik, or keen sense of political expediency. De Gaulle realized that decolonization was inevitable, and that a crisis and extended Algerian War would harm the French economy. Accordingly, de Gaulle felt that it was in Frances best interests to grant independence and desist from military engagement, thereby preserving French unity, Gaullists emphasize the need for France to guarantee its national independence without resorting to allies whose interests might not coincide with those of France. Kritzman writes, Gaullist foreign policy was motivated by its need to distinguish itself from … the two great superpowers, paradoxically, desired to be part of the Western alliance and be critical of it at the same time on key issues such as defense. Gaullists were also critical of the economic influence of the U. S. De Gaulles hopes to advance this sort of union largely failed, however, de Gaulles political legacy has been profound in France
14.
Union for French Democracy
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The Union for French Democracy was a centrist political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an alliance to support President Valéry Giscard dEstaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the political right in France. This name was due to the title of Giscard dEstaings 1976 book. The UDF effectively ceased to exist by the end of 2007, and its membership and assets were transferred to its successor party, the Democratic Movement. The founding parties of the UDF were Giscards Republican Party, the Centre of Social Democrats, the Radical Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Perspectives and Realities Clubs. The UDF was most frequently a junior partner in coalitions with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and its successor party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Prior to its dissolution, the UDF became an entity, due to the defection of Republicans, Radicals and most Christian Democrats to the UMP. The partys last leader was François Bayrou, who transferred his leadership to MoDem, in 1974, Valéry Giscard dEstaing was elected President of France. Two years later, his Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chirac resigned and created the Rally for the Republic in order to restore the Gaullist domination over the republican institutions and he therefore sought to formally organise a political grouping which would represent the position of his followers. Consequently, the UDF confederation was born, indeed, RPR leader Jacques Chirac criticized the market-oriented and pro-European policy of the executive duo. During the 1979 European electoral campaign, Chirac published the Call of Cochin where the UDF was accused of being the foreign party, after the election of François Mitterrand as president, the two centre-right parliamentary parties reconciled. Little by little, the RPR abandoned Gaullist doctrine and joined the market-oriented, although, they presented a common list at the 1984 European Parliament election, their leaders Chirac and Barre competed for the leadership of the French centre-right. Focused on winning the 1986 legislative election, Chirac, unlike Barre, furthermore, some UDF politicians covertly supported Chirac. Consequently, he became Prime Minister, from 1986 to 1988, Barre was a candidate in the 1988 presidential election, yet, despite his popularity, he was not supported by all UDF personalities. Giscard dEstaing himself refused to choose clearly and publicly between his two former Prime Ministers, eliminated in the first round, Barre called on his supporters to vote for Chirac in the second round, but despite this, Chirac was defeated by Mitterrand. After the re-election of Mitterrand, some UDF members participated as ministers in the cabinets of Prime Minister Michel Rocard. Others created a new group, the Centrist Union, which occasionally voted with the Socialist Party or with the RPR. For Giscard dEstaing, Barres failure to strengthen the UDF, allowed him retake the leadership of the UDF, in 1991, the dismissal of Rocard caused the departure of the centrist ministers from the government
15.
French legislative election, 1993
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French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the tenth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a parliamentary majority. In an attempt to avoid having to work with the Communists, after the UDF withdrew its support for the government in 1991, Rocard and the UDF ministers resigned. The UDF then became allied with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party was further weakened by scandals and an intense rivalry between François Mitterrands potential successors. In March 1992, the Socialists were punished at the local elections, Prime Minister Édith Cresson was replaced by Pierre Bérégovoy. The latter promised to struggle against economic recession and corruption, but he was suspected to have received a loan from a controversial businessman. The election was a victory for the RPR-UDF alliance, while the PS. The PS lost nearly 80% of the seats they had held at the time of the chambers dissolution and this caused a crisis within the PS, Fabius lost his position as First Secretary in favour of Rocard, who claimed that a political big bang was needed. Jospin announced his retirement after he was defeated in his Haute-Garonne constituency. Depressed by the defeat and the accusations about the loan from Pelat, some traditional PS voters had voted for the Greens in the first round. These ecologists obtained a total of 10. 84%, making this the best total score for French Green parties in legislative elections, however, only two ecologists qualified for the runoff, including Dominique Voynet in her constituency in the Doubs département. Both of these candidates were eventually defeated, lack of major political allies for these ecologists explained this failure to take any seats. The RPR-UDF coalition formed the largest parliamentary majority since 1958, taking a total of 485 seats or 84% of the 577 seats, the RPR leader Jacques Chirac demanded President Mitterrands resignation and refused to be Prime Minister in a new cohabitation government. Finally, he suggested the nomination of his former RPR Finance Minister Edouard Balladur at the head of the government, Balladur promised publicly that he would not run against Chirac for the next presidential election. The second cohabitation finished with the 1995 presidential election
16.
Lionel Jospin
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Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002 and he was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995. Lionel Jospin was born to a Protestant family in Meudon, a suburb of Paris and he is the son of Robert Jospin. He attended the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly before studying at the Institut détudes politiques de Paris and he was active in the UNEF students union, protesting against the war in Algeria. He completed his service as an officer in charge of armoured training in Trier. After his graduation from the ENA in 1965, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as secretary of Foreign Affairs and he became in charge of economic cooperation there, and worked with Ernest-Antoine Seillière, future leader of the MEDEF employers union. Integrating François Mitterrands circle, he became the second highest-ranking member of the party in 1979, in 1984, when Laurent Fabius was chosen as Prime minister, a rivalry appeared between these two political heirs of Mitterrand. It broke out when they competed for the leadership of the 1986 legislative campaign, in 1988, after Mitterrands re-election, he left the PS leadership, and, though the President considered naming him Prime Minister, he was nominated Minister of Education. His rivalry with Fabius intensified and caused a crisis, notably during the Rennes Congress. Indeed, the mitterrandist group in the party split because Jospin followers allied with the factions to prevent the election of Fabius as First Secretary. As a member of the National Assembly, Jospin served first as a representative of Paris, Jospin lost his seat in the National Assembly in the Socialists landslide defeat in the 1993 legislative election and announced his political retirement. In 1993, Lionel Jospin was appointed ministre plénipotentiaire, 2nd class and he was, however, not appointed to any embassy. Finally, he came back and claimed the necessity to take stock of the mitterrandist inheritance so as to restore the credibility of the Socialist Party, in this, he was selected to be the Socialist candidate for President in 1995, against the PS leader Henri Emmanuelli. Following the Socialists landslide defeats of 1992–1994, Jospin was considered to have little chance of victory, but he did surprisingly well, leading the first round and losing only very narrowly to Jacques Chirac in the final runnoff election. Despite defeat, his performance was seen to mark a revival of the Socialists as a force in French politics. He built a new coalition with the other left-wing parties, the French Communist Party, the Greens, the Left Radical Party, two years later, Chirac decided to call an early election for the National Assembly, hoping for a personal endorsement. But the move backfired as the Plural Left obtained a parliamentary majority, Jospin is a Member of the Club of Madrid. Jospin served as Prime Minister during Frances third cohabitation government under President Jacques Chirac from 1997 to 2002, despite his previous image as a rigid socialist, Jospin went on selling state-owned enterprises, lowered the VAT rate, income tax and company tax
17.
Nicolas Sarkozy
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Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement party, during Jacques Chiracs second presidential term he served as Minister of the Interior except between March 2004 and May 2005 when he was minister of Finances. Sarkozy was also mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France and he was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur during François Mitterrands last term. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis and the Arab Spring and he married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. In foreign affairs, Sarkozy promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom, in the 2012 election, the Socialist François Hollande defeated Sarkozy by 3. 2%. After leaving the Presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in September 2014, on 2 July 2014, Sarkozy was charged with corruption by French prosecutors. In 2016, he ran in the Republican presidential primary, and was eliminated in the first round of voting and they were married in the Saint-François-de-Sales church, 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 8 February 1950 and divorced in 1959. During Sarkozys childhood, his father founded his own advertising agency, the family lived in a mansion owned by Sarkozys maternal grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of Paris, according to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today and he also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier and taller classmates. What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood, Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a well regarded public middle and high school in Paris 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. Sarkozy enrolled at the Université Paris X Nanterre, where he graduated with an M. A. in private law and, later, Paris X Nanterre had been the starting place for the May 68 student movement and was still a stronghold of leftist students. Described as a student, Sarkozy soon joined the right-wing student organization. He completed his service as a part-time Air Force cleaner. After graduating from university, Sarkozy entered Sciences Po, where he studied between 1979 and 1981, but failed to graduate due to an insufficient command of the English language. After passing the bar, Sarkozy became a lawyer specializing in business and they had two sons, Pierre, now a hip-hop producer, and Jean now a local politician in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy started his own political career. Sarkozys best man was the prominent right-wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent, Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, after they had been separated for several years. As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz
18.
National Assembly (France)
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The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate, the National Assemblys members are known as députés. There are 577 députés, each elected by a constituency through a two-round voting system. Thus,289 seats are required for a majority, the assembly is presided over by a president, normally from the largest party represented, assisted by vice-presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The term of the National Assembly is five years, however and it is guarded by Republican Guards. The Constitution of the French Fifth Republic greatly increased the power of the executive at the expense of Parliament, the President of the Republic can decide to dissolve the National Assembly and call for new legislative elections. This is meant as a way to resolve stalemates where the Assembly cannot decide on a political direction. The National Assembly can overthrow the government by a vote of no confidence. For this reason, the minister and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. The Government used to set the priorities of the agenda for the Assemblys sessions and this, however, was amended on 23 July 2008. Under the amended constitution, the Government sets the priorities for two weeks in a month, another week is designated for the Assemblys control prerogatives. And the fourth one is set by the Assembly, also, one day per month is set by a minority or opposition group. Members of the assembly can ask written or oral questions to ministers, the Wednesday afternoon 3 p. m. session of questions to the Government is broadcast live on television. Like Prime Ministers Questions in Britain, it is largely a show for the viewers, with members of the majority asking flattering questions, while the opposition tries to embarrass the government. Since 1988, the 577 deputies are elected by universal suffrage with a two-round system by constituency, for a five-year mandate. The constituencies each have approximately 100,000 inhabitants, however, districts were not redrawn between 1982 and 2009. As a result of population movements over that period, there were inequalities between the less populous rural districts and the urban districts, the constituencies were redrawn in 2009, but this redistribution was controversial. Among other controversial measures, it created eleven constituencies and seats for French residents overseas, albeit without increasing the overall number of seats beyond 577
19.
French presidential election, 2007
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The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term. The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy, the first round of voting took place on Saturday,21 April 2007 and Sunday,22 April 2007. As no candidate obtained a majority, a second round between the two leading candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, took place on Saturday,5 May and Sunday,6 May 2007, Sarkozy and Royal both represented a generational change. Both main candidates were born after World War II, along with the first to have seen adulthood under the Fifth Republic, and the first not to have been in politics under Charles de Gaulle. The first round saw a high turnout of 83. 8% –36.7 million of the 44.5 million electorate voted from a population of 64.1 million. The results of that round saw Sarkozy and Royal qualify for the round with Sarkozy getting 31%. François Bayrou came third and Jean-Marie Le Pen fourth, unlike in 2002 when Le Pen got a surprising 16. 9% and this was the first time since 1981 that Laguiller had endorsed the Socialist Partys candidate. Olivier Besancenot called his supporters to vote against Sarkozy, frédéric Nihous and Gérard Schivardi never officially supported either Royal or Sarkozy. Philippe de Villiers called for a vote for Sarkozy, Le Pen told his voters to abstain massively in the second round. On 25 April, Bayrou declared he would not support either candidate in the runoff and he criticised both major candidates, and offered to debate them. Royal agreed to hold a debate, while Sarkozy offered to have a private discussion. The final CSA estimate showed him winning with 53% of the votes cast, Royal conceded defeat to Sarkozy that evening. Nationwide, Nicolas Sarkozy obtained 31% and Ségolène Royal 26% – while in 2002, Jacques Chirac had obtained 20%, the right-of-centre François Bayrou obtained 18. 6% this time, nearly tripling his 2002 result. National Front candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, made only 10. 4%, along with the April–May shift to the far right made by Sarkozy, this has led many commentators to allege that traditional voters of the FN had been tempted by Sarkozy. On a global scale, the left-wing reached 36% of the votes, against 19% for the centre, 33% for the right wing and 11% for the far right. Other candidates received a lower share of the vote than they had in 2002. Besancenot received 4. 1%, compared to 4. 3% in 2002. 3%. With an overall turnout of 83. 8%, a level not achieved since the 1965 presidential election when turnout was 84. 8%
20.
Mont Blanc Tunnel
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The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel in Europe, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, the passageway is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres, northeast of Mont Blancs summit, the tunnel is about 15 km southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the tunnel is 11.611 km in length,8.6 m in width, the passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted V, which assists ventilation. The entrance elevation on the French side is 1,274 m and 1,381 m in Italy, with a maximum of 1,395 m near the center, the tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. At the time of its construction, it tripled the length of any existing highway tunnel, the tunnel passes almost exactly under the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. At this spot, it lies 2480m beneath the surface, making it the second deepest operational tunnel after the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Plans to widen the tunnel were never implemented because of lack of financing, workforce, five engineers and 350 workmen worked an estimated grand total of 4. 1947, Franco-Italian Agreement signed for the planning of a tunnel under Mont Blanc,1953, Signature of a national charter for the tunnel construction, ratified by the parliaments of France and Italy. 1957, Formation of the STMB, which became ATMB in 1996,1959, In May, the French and Italian Public Works Ministers officially launch the drilling work. On 30 May in Chamonix, a ceremony is held for the start of the work for the Mont Blanc Tunnel in the presence of the Public Minister for Labour. It is announced that a giant 75-tonne tunnel boring machine will make it possible to bore the tunnel in less than 30 months,1962, Meeting of the French and Italian drilling teams on 4 August. The opening was successful, the variation was less than 13 centimetres. 1965, Inauguration of the tunnel by the French president, Charles de Gaulle, Tunnel opens to traffic on 19 July. 1973, Opening of the first section of the Autoroute Blanche,1978, A network of surveillance cameras is installed every 300 m and the total capacity of fresh air supply is increased to 900 m3/s. 1980, An additional air shaft,7 m in diameter, is built to avoid the build-up of foul air at the French end of the tunnel. 1990, Part of a modernization plan, the following work is done. The construction of 18 pressurized emergency shelters, every 600 m, the installation of a pressurized sprinkler system
21.
IBM Global Services
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IBM Global Services, a division of IBM, is the worlds largest business and technology services provider. It employs over 190,000 people across more than 160 countries, IBM Global Services started in the spring of 1991, with the aim towards helping companies manage their IT operations and resources. Global Services has two divisions, Global Business Services and Global Technology Services. IBM Global Business Services is the professional services arm of Global Services, including management and strategy consulting, systems integration, revenues from the Global Business Services were $13.5 billion in 2014. Also in 1989, IBM introduced Business Recovery Services, an offering that enables a business to continue operations in the event of an unplanned outage or disaster. In 1992, the company formed IBM Consulting Group, as a new management consulting organization with service lines in Business Transformation and this initiative was led by Robert M. Howe, IBM Vice-President and General Manager of IBM Consulting Group. The group was rebranded to IBM Business Innovation Services in 2001, as the management consulting became more entangled with more technology delivery, the integrated organization became known as IBM Global Business Services. PwCs consultancy business was sold to IBM for approximately US$3.9 billion in cash and this nearly doubled the number of consultants within IBM Global Services, adding 30,000 consultants in 52 countries. It includes outsourcing services, business continuity and resilience, Integrated Technology Services, revenues from the Global Technology Services segment in 2012 totaled $40.2 billion, a decrease of 2 percent compared with 2011. IBM Business Consulting Youtube Channel - GBS Yahoo profile IBM Global Services, a brief history, IBM Corporate Archives, May 2002
22.
Streit Council
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The Streit Council for a Union of Democracies /ˈstraɪt/ is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit foreign-policy organization seeking closer international cooperation and integration. Its research examines the present work and future prospects of inter-democratic and global institutions, formed in 2004, the Streit Council is a successor to Association to Unite the Democracies, founded in 1939 by Clarence Streit, a New York Times journalist and author of Union Now. Streit advocated a federation of the leading democracies, with a common foreign policy. Federal Union was renamed the Association to Unite the Democracies in 1985, richard Conn Henry, a physics professor at Johns Hopkins University, serves as the current President of the Streit Council Board of Directors. Solomon Passy, a member of the Bulgarian Parliament and Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs. As of 2013, the Streit Council published a journal, Freedom & Union, the Streit Council assisted in the English translation of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladurs book For a Union of the West, published by the Hoover Institution in 2009. Clarence Streit European Union NATO OECD World Bank Transatlantic relations http, //www. streitcouncil. org/ http, //blog. streitcouncil. org/
23.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
24.
Government of France
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The Government of the French Republic exercises executive power. It is composed of a minister, who is the head of government. Senior ministers are titled as Ministers, whereas junior ministers are titled as Secretaries of State, a smaller and more powerful executive body, called the Council of Ministers, is composed only of the senior ministers, though some Secretaries of State may attend Council meetings. By comparison, the Government of France is equivalent to Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom, all members of the French government are nominated by the President of the Republic on the advice of the Prime Minister. Members of the government are ranked in an order, which is established at the time of government formation. In this hierarchy, the Prime Minister is the head of government and he is nominated by the President of the Republic. After being nominated to lead a government, the Prime Minister nominee must propose a list of ministers to the President, the President can either accept or reject these proposed ministers. Ministers are ranked by importance, Ministers of State are senior ministers and it is an honorary rank, granted to some Ministers as a sign of prestige. Ministers are senior ministers, and are members of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries of State are junior ministers. This is the lowest rank in the French ministerial hierarchy, Secretaries work directly under a Minister, or sometimes directly under the Prime Minister. While the Council of Ministers does not include Secretaries of State as members, according to the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic, the government directs and decides the policy of the nation. In practice, the government writes bills to be introduced to parliament, all political decisions made by the government must be registered in the government gazette. All bills and some decrees must be approved by the Council of Ministers, furthermore, it is the Council of Ministers that defines the collective political and policy direction of the government, and takes practical steps to implement that direction. In addition to writing and implementing policy, the government is responsible for national defence, the workings of the government of France are based on the principle of collegiality. Meetings of the Council of Ministers take place every Wednesday morning at the Élysée Palace and they are presided over by the President of the Republic, who promotes solidarity and collegiality amongst government ministers. These meetings follow a set format, in the first part of a meeting, the Council deliberates over general interest bills, ordinances, and decrees. In the second part, the Council discusses individual decisions by each Minister regarding the appointment of civil servants. In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs provides the Council with weekly updates on important international issues, most government work, however, is done elsewhere
25.
Rwanda
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Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is elevated, its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two seasons and two dry seasons each year. The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa, Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, although within this group there are three subgroups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people descended from Rwandas earliest inhabitants. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, the language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English. Rwanda has a system of government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who took office in 2000, Rwanda today has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by an administrative hierarchy since pre-colonial times. Rwanda is one of two countries with a female majority in the national parliament. Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, the population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959 and they massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million Tutsi, the RPF ended the genocide with a military victory. Rwandas economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened, the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture
26.
Rwandan genocide
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The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, was a genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government. An estimated more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, additionally, 30% of the Pygmy Batwa were killed. The genocide and widespread slaughter of Rwandans ended when the Tutsi-backed, an estimated 2,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Hutus, were displaced and became refugees. The genocide was planned by members of the political elite. Perpetrators came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, the Gendarmerie, government-backed militias including the Interahamwe, waves of Hutu violence against the RPF and Tutsi followed Rwandan independence in 1962. This agreement was not acceptable to a number of conservative Hutu, including members of the Akazu, many Hutus reacted to this prospect with extreme opposition. In the lead-up to the genocide the number of machetes imported into Rwanda increased, on April 6,1994, an airplane carrying Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down on its descent into Kigali. At the time, the plane was in the airspace above Habyarimanas house, one person survived but died soon after en route to the hospital. The assassination of Habyarimana ended the peace accords, genocidal killings began the following day. Soldiers, police, and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu military, checkpoints and barricades were erected to screen all holders of the national ID card of Rwanda in order to systematically identify and kill Tutsi. Other observers criticized the government of France for alleged support of the Hutu government after the genocide had begun, the genocide had a lasting and profound impact on Rwanda and its neighboring countries. The pervasive use of rape as a weapon of war caused a spike in HIV infection, including babies born of rape to newly infected mothers, many households were headed by orphaned children or widows. The destruction of infrastructure and the depopulation of the country crippled the economy, challenging the nascent government to achieve rapid economic growth. Declaring a need to avert further genocide, the RPF-led government led military incursions into Zaire, including the First, Armed struggles between the Rwandan government and their opponents in DRC have continued to play out through proxy militias in the Goma region, including the M23 rebellion. Large Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi populations continue to live as refugees throughout the region, today, Rwanda has two public holidays mourning the genocide. The national mourning period begins with Kwibuka, the commemoration, on April 7. The week following April 7 is a week of mourning. The genocide served as an impetus for creating the International Criminal Court to eliminate the need for ad hoc tribunals to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
27.
Hutu
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The Hutu /ˈhuːtuː/, also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to African Great Lakes region of Africa, primarily area now under Burundi and Rwanda. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the principal population divisions alongside the Tutsi, the Hutu is the largest of the four main population divisions in Burundi and Rwanda. The Twa pygmies, the smallest of the two principal populations, also share language and culture with the Hutu and Tutsi. However, they are distinguished by a shorter stature. The Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from West Africa in the great Bantu expansion, various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi. These pastoralists were then reckoned to have established aristocracies over the sedentary Hutu, through intermarriage with the local Bantus, the herders were gradually assimilated culturally, linguistically and racially. The latter view has received support among proponents of Rwandan national unity, mahmood Mamdani states that the Belgian colonial power designated people as Tutsi or Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records. There is a debate as to whether the Hutu and Tutsi are really separate groups or not. Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Hutu, like the Tutsi, are largely of Bantu extraction, paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few, and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Hutu have considerably fewer Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages than the Tutsi, in general, the Hutu appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Tutsi. With a spectrum of variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions, the social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi. Tishkoff et al. found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, Hutus speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Rwanda and it is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Tutsi and Twa. Additionally, many Hutu speak French, the official language of Rwanda and Burundi. The Belgian-sponsored Tutsi monarchy survived until 1959, when Kigeli V was exiled from the colony, in Burundi, Tutsis, who are the minority, maintained control of the government and military. In Rwanda, the power was transferred from the minority Tutsi to the majority Hutu. In Rwanda, this led to the Social revolution and Hutu violence against Tutsis, later, exiled Tutsis from Burundi invaded Rwanda, prompting Rwanda to close its border with Burundi
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Tutsi
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The Tutsi, or Abatutsi, are a population inhabiting the African Great Lakes region. Historically, they were referred to as the Watutsi, Watusi. They speak Rwanda-Rundi, a group of Bantu languages, the Tutsi are the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa. Small numbers of Hema, Kiga and Furiiru people also live near the Tutsi in Rwanda. The Northern Tutsi who reside in Rwanda are called Ruguru, while southern Tutsi that live in Burundi are known as Hima, the definitions of Hutu and Tutsi people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule, the Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi. When the European colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a classification scheme. They defined Tutsi as anyone owning more than ten cows or with the feature of a longer nose, or longer neck. The Europeans believed that some Tutsis had facial characteristics that were atypical of other Bantus. By contrast, the Europeans considered the majority Hutu to be characteristic Bantu people of Central African origin, the Tutsi have lived in the areas where they are for 400–500 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu, a Bantu people in the area. To note the names Hutu and Bantu are not the same as they imply different things, modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction. Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few, however, the Tutsi have considerably more Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages than the Hutu. Trombetta et al. found 22. 2% of E1b1b in a sample of Tutsis from Burundi. The subclade was of the M293 variety, which suggests that the ancestors of Tutsis in this area may have assimilated some South Cushitic pastoralists, in general, the Tutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutus. With a spectrum of variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions, the social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi. Tishkoff et al. found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, prior to the arrival of colonists, Rwanda had been ruled by a Tutsi-dominated monarchy after mid-1600. Beginning in about 1880, Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the Great Lakes region, later, when German forces occupied the area during World War I, the conflict and efforts for Catholic conversion became more pronounced
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Charles Pasqua
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Charles Pasqua was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chiracs cohabitation government, Pasqua was born on 18 April 1927 in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes. His paternal grandfather was a shepherd from Casevecchie, Corsica and he could speak Corsican fluently, as of 1987, his cousin served as the Mayor of Casevecchie. During World War II, Pasqua joined the French Resistance at the age of sixteen, Pasqua received his Baccalauréat, followed by a degree in Law. From 1952 to 1971 he worked for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages, in 1971, Pasqua founded Euralim, also known as Europe-Alimentation, an importer of Americano, a cocktail made by the Italian company Gancia. In 1947, he helped create the section of the Gaullist Party RPF movement for the Alpes-Maritimes, with Jacques Foccart and Achille Peretti, he was the co-founder of the Service dAction Civique in 1959 to counter the terrorist actions of the OAS during the Algerian War of Independence. The SAC would be charged with the actions of the Gaullist movement. From 1968 to 1973, he was deputy to the French National Assembly for the Hauts-de-Seine département for the UDR party and he helped Jacques Chirac to take the lead of the party and participated in its transformation into the Rally for the Republic. As such, he is considered to be Chiracs mentor in politics, from 1981 to 1986 he was senator for the Hauts-de-Seine, then president of the RPR group in the Senate. From 1986 to 1988 he was Interior Minister, in 1992, he called a vote against the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. He became Interior Minister again from 1993 to 1995, and supported the candidacy of Edouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election and he is mostly remembered for having pushed a series of anti-immigration laws, and for his declaration we will terrorize the terrorists. Pasqua headed the Rally for France, a sovereigntist party, for a while in association with Philippe de Villiers, at the 1999 European Parliament election, their list got ahead of the RPR list. He served as the President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine from 1988 to 2004, in 2004, he was elected senator by an electoral college. In 2009, a US Senate report accused him, along with the British Respect politician George Galloway, Pasqua denied the charges and pointed out that he never met Saddam Hussein, never been to Iraq and never cultivated any political ties with that country. He was married to Jeanne Joly, from Quebec, Canada and they had a son, Pierre-Philippe Pasqua, who predeceased him, dying in February 2015. He died of an attack on 29 June 2015 at the Foch Hospital in Suresnes
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Jacques Toubon
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Jacques Toubon is a right-wing French politician who held several major national and Parisian offices. Governmental functions Minister of Culture, 1993–1995, keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, 1995–1997. Electoral mandates European Parliament Member of European Parliament, 2004–2009, National Assembly of France Member of the National Assembly of France for Paris, 1981–1993. Elected in 1981, reelected in 1986,1988,1993, municipal Council Deputy-mayor of Paris, 1983–2001. Mayor of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, 1983–2001, councillor of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, 1983–2001. Jacques Toubon is known for the controversial so-called Toubon Law, enforcing the use of the French language in official French government publications, since the law can largely be described as being hostile to English, Jacques Toubon is sometimes referred to, jokingly, as Mr Allgood. Jacques Toubon is also remembered for the helicopter affair, however, this was not a full criminal investigation and no investigative magistrate had been named. Davenas then went on vacation in the Himalaya and his deputy then announced his decision to open a full investigation. Jacques Toubon has been the topic of much lampooning, in addition to Mr Allgood, Les Guignols de linfo have referred to him as M. Bouffon. Former official page as Minister of Justice
Media related to Édouard Balladur at Wikimedia Commons
