1.
International Monetary Fund
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The International Monetary Fund is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D. C. It now plays a role in the management of balance of payments difficulties. Countries contribute funds to a pool through a system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had SDR477 billion, the rationale for this is that private international capital markets function imperfectly and many countries have limited access to financial markets. The IMF provides alternate sources of financing and this assistance was meant to prevent the spread of international economic crises. The IMF was also intended to help mend the pieces of the economy after the Great Depression. As well, to provide investments for economic growth and projects such as infrastructure. The IMFs role was altered by the floating exchange rates post-1971. It shifted to examining the economic policies of countries with IMF loan agreements to determine if a shortage of capital was due to economic fluctuations or economic policy, the IMF also researched what types of government policy would ensure economic recovery. Rather than maintaining a position of oversight of only exchange rates and their role became a lot more active because the IMF now manages economic policy rather than just exchange rates. In addition, the IMF negotiates conditions on lending and loans under their policy of conditionality, nonconcessional loans, which include interest rates, are provided mainly through Stand-By Arrangements, the Flexible Credit Line, the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, and the Extended Fund Facility. The IMF provides emergency assistance via the Rapid Financing Instrument to members facing urgent balance-of-payments needs, the IMF is mandated to oversee the international monetary and financial system and monitor the economic and financial policies of its member countries. This activity is known as surveillance and facilitates international cooperation, the responsibilities changed from those of guardian to those of overseer of members’ policies. In 1995 the International Monetary Fund began work on data dissemination standards with the view of guiding IMF member countries to disseminate their economic and financial data to the public. The executive board approved the SDDS and GDDS in 1996 and 1997 respectively, the system is aimed primarily at statisticians and aims to improve many aspects of statistical systems in a country. It is also part of the World Bank Millennium Development Goals, some countries initially used the GDDS, but later upgraded to SDDS. The IMF does require collateral from countries for loans but also requires the government seeking assistance to correct its macroeconomic imbalances in the form of policy reform, if the conditions are not met, the funds are withheld. The concept of conditionality was introduced in a 1952 Executive Board decision, conditionality is associated with economic theory as well as an enforcement mechanism for repayment
2.
John Lipsky
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John Phillip Lipsky is an American economist. He was the acting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from May to July 2011 and he assumed the post of Acting Managing Director after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in May 2011 accused of sexual assault. After the appointment of Christine Lagarde he returned to his post as the First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF and he retired from the IMF in November 2011 and is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Lipsky was born into a Jewish family in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, lipskys great-grandfather, Henry Smulekoff, was a Ukrainian immigrant who opened a furniture store on Cedar Rapids Mays Island in 1890. Lipsky was the child of three born to Abbott and Joan Lipsky. His late father was president of Smulekoffs, and sister Ann Lipsky is president today and his mother still lives in Cedar Rapids and is a retired lawyer, legislator, and chairwoman of the Iowa Council on Human Services. Early interest in Latin America was sparked by a vacation in Mexico which led to a friendship, a summer in Guadalajara with the friend. Lipsky attended Wesleyan University, earning a B. A. in economics and he gained his M. A. and Ph. D. in the field from Stanford University. On graduation from Stanford, Lipsky joined the International Monetary Fund, appointed the IMFs resident representative in Chile from 1978, Lipsky returned, in 1980, to the IMF headquarters in Washington D. C. to develop the IMFs analysis of international capital markets. He also participated in negotiations with several member countries, after 10 years at the IMF, in 1984 he joined Salomon Brothers in New York, working with Henry Kaufman. Based in London, England from 1989, he was director of the banks European Economic and he returned to New York in 1994, when appointed the banks chief economist and a managing director, with an office next to Henry Kaufman. In 1998 he joined JPMorgan as Chief Economist, and on that banks merger with Chase Manhattan was appointed Chief Economist and he was then appointed to an operation role, becoming Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Investment Bank. In 2000, he chaired Financial Sector Review Group, established by former Managing Director Horst Köhler, an independent perspective on work on international financial markets. On September 1,2006 he returned to the IMF as First Deputy Managing Director, on May 12,2011, Lipsky announced that he would leave his post at the end of his term on August 31,2011, declining the option to serve for a second term. Lipsky also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, lipskys unplanned accession at the IMF led quickly to his immersion in addressing the European and Greek sovereign debt crises, a high-profile role his predecessor had been playing. At the 37th G8 summit held on 26–27 May 2011 in Deauville, France and he did so by threatening to withhold IMF disbursements, an action that would precipitate a Greek default – an option none was ready to accept at that point. In the bitter infighting, Lipsky was characterized in The Guardian as less silky, Lipsky retired from the IMF in 2011. He now teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Lipsky lives in Washington, D. C. and Brooklyn, New York
3.
Rodrigo Rato
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Subsequently he became Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and served from 2004 to 2007. He left the IMF on 31 October 2007, after the World Bank-IMF annual meetings and he was president of Bankia between 3 December 2010 and until its bankruptcy 7 May 2012. Rato was arrested on 16 April 2015 for alleged fraud, embezzlement and his case was still awaiting trial a year later when his name appeared in the Panama Papers. Despite his prior assurances that he did not own companies in tax havens and it has been alleged that he owes taxes to both the Spanish and Panamanian governments. On 23 February 2017, Rato was found guilty of embezzlement, Rodrigo de Rato was born in Madrid, into a rich textile owning family from Asturias. He is the grandson of Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro y Díaz-Argüelles. Rato attended a Jesuit school before studying law in the Complutense University, in 1971 he went to University of California, Berkeley, and received an MBA in 1974 from the Haas School of Business. In 1975 he became involved in the business, first in Fuensanta, an Asturian mineral water company. He also became involved in expanding the Cadena Rato chain of radio stations, in 1977 he joined the newly-formed Popular Alliance, a party containing former ministers of Franco, founded by Manuel Fraga, a close personal friend of his father. In December 1979 Rato was elected to the executive committee. In February 1981 he became one of the partys five Secretaries-General and he supported tight controls on public spending, and an emphasis on the supply side of economics. In October 1982 he won election as an AP member of the Cortes Generales for Cádiz in spite of having no connection to this Andalucian town and he represented the area until 1989 and subsequently represented Madrid from 1989-2000. The 1982 election handed a loss to the AP, and marked the beginning of the rule of the PSOE. Until 1984 Rato was the Secretary of the parliamentary group and he then became their economic affairs spokesman where he impressed the party with his attacks on the PSOEs economic policies. He was seen to be on the wing of the party. During these years he continued his business career, becoming President of Fuensanta. In June 1989 Fraga again became interim President after the generally acknowledged failure of the leadership of Hernández Mancha, the party became the slightly more inclusive Peoples Party. Rato was given shared responsibility over the elections with Francisco Álvarez-Cascos Fernández and he was a close supporter of José María Aznar, who was voted as the new PP leader on 4 September
4.
Christine Lagarde
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Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde is a French lawyer and politician who has been the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since 5 July 2011. Lagarde was the first woman to become minister of a G8 economy and is the first woman to head the IMF. A noted anti-trust and labour lawyer, Lagarde was the first female chairwoman of the law firm Baker & McKenzie between 1999 and 2004. On 16 November 2009, the Financial Times ranked her the best Minister of Finance in the Eurozone, on 28 June 2011, she was named as the next MD of the IMF for a five-year term, starting on 5 July 2011, replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Her appointment is the 11th consecutive appointment of a European to head the IMF, in 2014, Lagarde was ranked the 5th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. She was re-elected by consensus for a second term, starting 5 July 2016. Lagarde was born in Paris, France, into a family of academics and her father, Robert Lallouette, was a Professor of English, her mother, Nicole, was a Latin, Greek and French literature teacher. Lagarde and her three brothers, all younger, spent their childhood in Le Havre where she attended the Lycée François 1er, as a teenager, Lagarde was a member of the French national synchronised swimming team. After her baccalauréat in 1973, she went on an American Field Service scholarship to the Holton-Arms School for girls in Bethesda and she graduated from Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, where she obtained Masters degrees in English, labor law, and social law. She also holds a degree from the Institut détudes politiques dAix-en-Provence. Since 2010, she has presided over Sciences Po Aixs board of directors and she also prepared for École nationale dadministrations entrance exam but ultimately failed to gain admission to the elite public administration school. Lagarde is divorced and has two sons, Pierre-Henri Lagarde and Thomas Lagarde, since 2006, her partner has been the entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti from Marseille. A health-conscious vegetarian who rarely drinks alcohol, Lagardes hobbies include regular trips to the gym, cycling, Lagarde joined Baker & McKenzie, a large Chicago-based international law firm, in 1981. She handled major antitrust and labour cases, was made partner after six years and was named head of the firm in Western Europe and she joined the executive committee in 1995 and was elected the companys first ever female Chairman in October 1999. In 2004, Lagarde became president of the global strategic committee, as Frances Trade Minister between 2005 and May 2007, Lagarde prioritized opening new markets for the countrys products, focusing on the technology sector. On 18 May 2007, she was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the government of François Fillon. The following month she joined François Fillons cabinet in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Finance and she was the only member of the French political class to condemn Jean-Paul Guerlains racist remarks of 2010. On 25 May 2011, Lagarde announced her candidacy to be head of the IMF to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn upon his resignation and her candidacy received the support of the British, Indian, United States, Brazilian, Russian, Chinese and German governments
5.
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
6.
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
7.
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
8.
Jean Arthuis
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Jean Georges Arthuis is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament from France, he also serves as Senator representing Morbihan in the French Parliament. He has held ministerial positions, especially regarding finances, and is now head of the Committee on Budgets in the European parliament. He is the President of the Centrist Alliance political party and is a member of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, Arthuis was born in 1944 in the Loire region of north-west France, where his parents ran a poultry business. He went to school in Château-Gontier, to which he returned after studying at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Nantes and Sciences Po in Paris, in 1971 he set up an accountancy business in the town. When Jacques Chirac became president in 1995, Arthuis returned to government under prime minister Alain Juppé, initially in charge of economic planning, he was later promoted to finance minister, succeeding Alain Madelin. He represented France in negotiating the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact and that same year, Arthuis called for an investigation of former top executives at the state-controlled bank Credit Lyonnais for concealing losses at one of its key units, Altus Finance. In 2012, Arthuis authored a report on the future eurozone for Prime Minister François Fillon. Arthuis has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2014 elections and he has since served as the chairman of the Committee on Budgets. In 2014, he was the Parliament’s lead negotiator on the 2015 budget of the European Union, Arthuis publicly endorsed Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 French presidential elections. Société du Cheval Français, Member Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
9.
Neuilly-sur-Seine
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Neuilly-sur-Seine is a French commune just west of Paris, in the department of Hauts-de-Seine. A suburb of Paris, Neuilly is immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential neighbourhoods, and many corporate headquarters are located there. Originally, Neuilly was a hamlet under the jurisdiction of Villiers. In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name as Lugniacum, in a sales contract dated 1266 the name was also recorded as Luingni. In 1316, however, in a ruling of the parlement of Paris, the name was recorded as Nully, in a document dated 1376 the name was again recorded as Nulliacum. Then in the centuries the name recorded alternated between Luny and Nully, and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set as Nully. The name spelt Neuilly after the French Academy standard of pronunciation of the ill as a y, various explanations and etymologies have been proposed to explain these discrepancies in the names of Neuilly recorded over the centuries. The original name of Neuilly may have been Lulliacum or Lugniacum, some interpret Lulliacum or Lugniacum as meaning estate of Lullius, probably a Gallo-Roman landowner. This interpretation is based on the many placenames of France made up of the names of Gallo-Roman landowners and these researchers contend that it is only after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Germanic invasions that the area of Neuilly was deforested and settled. Thus, they think that the name Lulliacum or Lugniacum comes from the ancient Germanic word lund meaning forest, akin to Old Norse lundr meaning grove, however, this interesting theory fails to explain why the d of lund is missing in Lulliacum or Lugniacum. Or perhaps the consonants were simply inverted under the influence of the settlements of France called Neuilly. On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes, on that occasion, a part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was annexed by the city of Paris, and forms now the neighbourhood of Ternes, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with a part of the territory of Clichy to create the commune of Levallois-Perret. On 2 May 1897, the name officially became Neuilly-sur-Seine. However, most people continue to refer to Neuilly-sur-Seine as simply Neuilly, during the 1900 Summer Olympics, it hosted the basque pelota events. The American Hospital of Paris was founded in 1906, in 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Boulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris. It was the site of the Château de Neuilly, an important royal residence during the July Monarchy, Neuilly-sur-Seine is served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 1, Porte Maillot, Les Sablons and Pont de Neuilly
10.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
13.
HEC Paris
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HEC Paris or école des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris is a European business school located in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. Its pre-experience Masters in Finance programme has consistently ranked 1st worldwide by the Financial Times since the rankings began in 2011 and it holds the Triple accreditation, AMBA, EQUIS, and AACSB. HEC Paris was created in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce, on average, it has been ranked as the best business school in Europe by the Financial Times since the rankings inception. The school grants a Grande Ecole degree, pre-experience masters degrees and it has several double degree agreements with foreign business schools and universities as well as other French institutions. As is also the case for other top French grandes écoles, HECs reputation relies on its highly competitive entrance exam, a concours jointly organized with other French business schools. Among the 9,500 students sitting the concours after 2 years of classes, HEC has an admission rate of 4%. HEC has many alumni in business and politics. In 2011,12 of the 40 largest French publicly traded companies have an alumnus of HEC Paris as CEO. With regards to the number of CEOs of Fortune Global 500 companies as of 2017, HEC ranks as the 3rd highest education institution in the world, in 1819, ESCP Europe became the first business school created in the world. Yet, many of the most prestigious French Grandes Écoles already existed, for example, the Arts et Métiers ParisTech, the École Polytechnique, the ENSTA and the École Normale Supérieure were created before or during the French Revolution. Most business schools were created later, at the end of the 19th century. Established in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales wanted to be in the fields of management and trade what Centrale Paris was in the field of engineering. In order to gain recognition from the world, the school offered lessons similar to what was taught in secondary education. In 1921, the introduced the case-based method of the Harvard Business School. In 1938, HEC program was lengthened to 3 years, an evidence of the recognition of the diploma is that only 9% of HEC students also attended university in 1959, whereas 47% had done so in 1929. In 1964, French President Charles de Gaulle inaugurated a new 250-acre wooded campus in Jouy-en-Josas, in 1967, HEC launched its executive education programs. At that time, the CCIP wanted HEC to become an MBA school like Harvard, since the alumni opposed this project, the CCIP established a new school in 1969, the Institut Supérieur des Affaires. Yet HEC and ISA joined forces in the Centre denseignement supérieur des affaires the following year and this group changed its named to Groupe HEC in 1989
14.
Sciences Po
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Sciences Po, or Paris Institute of Political Studies is a selective university located in Paris, France, and is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious in France. Sciences Po is a university focused on the social sciences and its main campus encircles Boulevard Saint Germain in the 7th arrondissement. Undergraduate students can choose to study in one of its six campuses in Reims, Dijon, Le Havre, Nancy, Poitiers or Menton, each focusing on a different cultural. The institution is a member of several academic consortia, Sciences Po was created in 1872 to improve the training of public servants and politicians in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. Many notable public figures are among its alumni, including most French presidents and it has also been strongly criticized for creating an oligarchy in French society and being at the centre of several scandals. Following defeat in the 1870 war, the demise of Napoleon III, and the Paris Commune, politically and economically, people feared Frances international stature was waning due to inadequate teaching of its political and diplomatic corps. ELSP was meant to serve as breeding ground where nearly all the major, non-technical state commissioners were trained. ”New disciplines such as International Relations, International Law, Political Economy. In August 1894, the British Association for the Advancement of Science spoke out for the need to advance the study of politics along the lines of ELSP. Sidney and Beatrice Webb used the purpose and curriculum of Sciences Po as part of their inspiration for creating the London School of Economics in 1895. As per ordinance 45-2284 issued on 9 October 1945, two entities were created from ELSP, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques or FNSP, and Institut détudes politiques de Paris or IEP Paris. Both entities were tasked by the French government to ensure “the progress, the epithet Sciences Po was applied to both entities, which inherited the reputation previously vested in ELSP. Frances Legislature entrusted FNSP with managing IEP Paris, its library, and budget, and they are not to be confounded with Sciences Pos satellite campuses. FNSP further strengthened its role as a publication center with significant donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. Sciences Po underwent various reforms under the directorship of Richard Descoings, in these years, Sciences Po introduced a compulsory year abroad component to its undergraduate degree, and began to offer a multilingual curriculum in French, English, and other languages. It was during this period that Sciences Po added its regional campuses, Sciences Po also implemented reforms in its admissions process. Previously, Sciences Po recruited its students exclusively on the basis of a competitive examination and this system was seen to favor students from prestigious preparatory high schools or those who could afford year-long preparatory courses. In March 2001, the governing council widened its admissions policy. Sciences Po is located in Paris, in the 6th and 7th districts,27 rue Saint-Guillaume houses the office since 1879
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Paris Institute of Statistics
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Institut de Statistiques de lUniversité de Paris is a graduate school of statistics based in Paris, near the Place dItalie. It offers specializations in actuarial sciences, Biostatistics as well as industry, the institute is currently affiliated to Pierre and Marie Curie University, frequently considered as the most prestigious universities of Science and Medicine in France. The ISUP is the oldest training statistics in France, it was founded in 192220 years before the ENSAE and 72 years before the ENSAI. At the end of the Great War, Émile Borel, one of the greatest mathematicians of his time, was appointed to the Chair of Probability and Mathematical Physics at the University of Paris. So at this time, there is almost no teaching of statistics, Borel is confident that in economy - in Insurance, in particular - there is a demand. This intuition is the basis for the creation of the ISUP1922, Éric Le Boucher, Director of economy magazine Enjeux-Les Echos. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist, progenitor of Ecological economics, the current headmaster is Michel Delecroix. Among teachers, traditionally shared with the University of Paris VI or with some ESSEC or Dauphine and these include Jean Jacod, Paul Deheuvels, Gérard Biau. On its website, the announced that it received 1,064 job offers in 2007. The average compensation for hiring students ISUP makes the ISUP among major French schools that offer the best remuneration and it is a major laboratory of research in statistics thanks to the number and impact of publications. It has 8 professors,10 Lecturers,20 external and 80 doctoral and post-doctoral students, journal Electronique dHistoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique December
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Paris Nanterre University
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Paris Nanterre University, formerly called Paris X Nanterre and more recently Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, is a French university in the Academy of Versailles. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, mainly in the areas of law, humanities, political science, social sciences and it is one of the thirteen successor universities of the University of Paris. It is located in the suburb of Nanterre, in the La Défense area. The university is referred to as Nanterre. Nanterre was built in the 1960s on the outskirts of Paris as an extension of the Sorbonne and it was set up as an independent university in December 1970. Based on the American model, it was created as a campus, Nanterre became famous shortly after its opening by being at the center of the May 68 student rebellion. The campus was nicknamed Nanterre, la folle or Nanterre la rouge, Nanterre is the second largest campus in France after Nantes, with its own Olympic-sized swimming pool and a stadium. The university is renowned in the fields of Law and Economics, the Rene Ginouves Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology is another important institution on campus, merging the departments of the CNRS, Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne and Paris X-Nanterre. As in most Parisian universities, there is a minority of foreign exchange students. These programs have inspired many universities and grandes écoles throughout the country and are now renowned on a national level, Law The university’s undergraduate law program is ranked 9th of France by Eduniversal, with 2 stars. La Chinoise, by Jean-Luc Godard,1967 My Sex Life
17.
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
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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
19.
New York v. Strauss-Kahn
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The People of the State of New York v. The charges were dismissed at the request of the prosecution which pointed out serious doubts in Diallos credibility and he said that Diallo had lied and that he had no intention of negotiating with her over a civil suit she had filed against him. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount, subsequently reported to have been $1.5 million. On May 19,2011, Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a jury and after posting $1 million bail. On 1 July, prosecutors told the judge that they had reassessed the strength of their case in the light of the housekeepers diminished credibility, and the case against him was near collapse. At the time of the attack, Strauss-Kahn was the head of the International Monetary Fund. Four days after his arrest, he resigned his post at the IMF. There was widespread speculation in France after his arrest that he was the victim of a conspiracy, Strauss-Kahn was accused of four felony charges—two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse—plus three misdemeanor offences, including unlawful imprisonment. The U. S. State Department determined that Strauss Kahns diplomatic immunity did not apply to the case, Strauss-Kahn hired New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman to represent him. He was reported as having sought public relations advice from a Washington-based consulting firm and his defense team hired a private detective agency to investigate the housekeepers past. Nafissatou Diallo was represented by Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor of Thompson Wigdor LLP, Thompson hired a Paris lawyer to look for women in France who may have been victimized by Strauss-Kahn. Strauss-Kahn appeared in court on May 16 before New York City Criminal Court judge Melissa Jackson, Strauss-Kahn, who had earlier agreed to a forensic examination, pleaded not guilty. Judge Jackson denied his bail request stating that the fact that Strauss-Kahn was apprehended on a departing airplane rais some concerns, after Strauss-Kahn turned over his passport and posted an additional $5 million bail bond, he was placed under house arrest in a residence in Lower Manhattan. On 24 May, it was reported that DNA tests of the semen found on Diallos shirt had shown a match with the DNA sample from Strauss-Kahn and he was arraigned on June 6 and pleaded not guilty. Outside the court, lawyers for the parties made statements, Benjamin Brafman, for Strauss-Kahn, said, In our judgment, once the evidence has been reviewed, it will be clear that there was no element of forcible compulsion in this case whatsoever. Any suggestion to the contrary is not credible. Kenneth Thompson, Diallos lawyer, said all of Strauss-Kahns power, money, on 30 June 2011, the district attorney sent a letter to Strauss-Kahns defense team disclosing information about the housekeeper. Prosecutors met with Strauss-Kahns defense team the same day, following Strauss-Kahns release on bail the following day, the same paper reported that Diallo had admitted she lied about the events immediately following her encounter with Strauss-Kahn
20.
French Socialist Party presidential primary, 2006
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The Socialist Party presidential primary of 2006 was the selection process by which members of the Socialist Party of France chose their candidate for the 2007 French presidential election. At the 2005 Socialist Party congress in Le Mans, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Fabius, the more traditional Socialist of the two, had seemed particularly ascendant after the distinct leftward tilt of the Le Mans congress and its resultant party platform. The November primary had a date of 1 October 2006. Jospin was nominally in retirement after his disastrous loss, but he was considered a potential entrant in the primary. When he formally announced on 28 September that he would not register for the primary, Royal was the regional president of Poitou-Charentes and a deputy to the National Assembly for Deux-Sèvres. She had already expressed her eagerness to run in an interview with Paris Match in 2005 and she refined a national profile and officially registered on 29 September in Vitrolles. Royal ran her campaign on issues of party reform, stressing the debilities of the traditional leadership, jospin – a three-decade fixture in French politics – held her in scorn for her pure demagoguery. When he withdrew the race amid crumbling support in opinion polls and her personal relationship with Socialist Party leader François Hollande complicated the situation, she was his longtime domestic partner, and mother of their four children. Hollande, who had harbored ambitions of his own for the primary, by the end of September, Lang and Kouchner gave up their struggling bids for the nomination and each offered a modest endorsement of Royal. Strauss-Kahn, however, officially registered his candidacy on 29 September, Strauss-Kahn and Fabius each had solid blocs of political support, but Royal had a much larger audience. She was a campaigner, highly regarded for her personal charm. She effectively employed the Internet, adroitly using social media outlets, fortified by a host of supportive bloggers, Royals saturated Internet presence helped her to hold popular attention and maintain momentum in the race. The candidates participated in three televised debates, as well as three internal party debates among members only. Royal held onto a lead, though it eroded steadily through the final weeks. The primary vote took place among the partys 219,000 members on 16 November 2006, Royal won by a wide margin with 108,807 votes,60. 6% of the total, while Strauss-Kahn and Fabius divided the remainder almost evenly. With this victory, Royal became the first woman candidate of a party to stand for the Presidency of France. Royal campaigned vigorously through the 2007 presidential election, but lost to conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, after her defeat, many party members openly disesteemed the primary system, which was new to the Socialists and only used once before. Royals unexpectedly powerful victory in the primary was criticized as a failure of the system, approximately 2.5 million people cast ballots in the presidential primary of 2011, more than a tenfold increase in the number of voters from 2006
21.
History of the Jews in Alsace
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The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a number of learned men in Astransbourg. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people, other medieval representations have survived through copies of the Hortus deliciarum and as architectural fragments in the Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame. In 1286, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, one of the leading Jewish figures of his day, was imprisoned by the German king in a fortress near Ensisheim, in 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning the wells with plague. On February 14, Saint Valentines day, thousands of Jews were massacred during the Strasbourg pogrom, Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town and were reminded every evening at 10 oclock by a Cathedral bell and a municipal herald blowing the Grüselhorn to leave. Alsatian Jews then settled in the villages and small towns. An important political figure for the Jews of Alsace and beyond was the long-serving shtadlan Josel of Rosheim, with the annexation of Alsace to France in 1681, Catholicism was restored as the principal Christian current. However, the prohibition against Jews settling in Strasbourg, and the special taxes Jews were subjected to, were not lifted. In the 18th century, Herz Cerfbeer of Medelsheim, the merchant and philanthropist. The French Revolution then admitted Jews back into the town, by 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. Another 7500 Jews lived in neighboring Lorraine, together they comprised three-fourths of the 40,000 Jews who lived in France at the time. The Jews were highly segregated, subject to long-standing anti-Jewish regulations and they maintained their own customs, language, and historic traditions within the tightly-knit ghettos, they adhered to Talmudic law enforced by their rabbis. Jews were barred from most cities and instead lived in hundreds of small hamlets and they were also barred from most occupations, and concentrated in trade, services, and especially in moneylending. They financed about a third of the mortgages in Alsace, leading philosophers of the French Enlightenment, such as Denis Diderot and Voltaire, ridiculed and condemned French Jews as misanthropic, rapacious, and culturally backward. In 1777, a local judge forged hundreds of receipts, which he gave to Catholic peasants, tolerance grew during the French Revolution, with full emancipation given to Protestants in 1789, Sephardic Jews in 1790, and the Ashkenazi Jews of Alsace and Lorraine in 1791. When Napoleon created the Grand Sanhedrin in 1806, he appointed the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, Joseph David Sinzheim, however, local antisemitism also increased, and Napoleon turned hostile in 1806, imposing a moratorium on repaying all debts owed to Jews. In 1808 Napoleon imposed tight limits on Jewish money-lending, capping interest rates at 5%, napoleons decrees collapsed after he fell from power, but an undercurrent of antisemitism remained. In the 1830–1870 era, urban middle-class Jews made enormous progress toward integration and acculturation, by 1831, the state began paying salaries to official rabbis, and in 1846 a special oath required for Jews in court was discontinued
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Lorraine
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Lorraine is a cultural and historical region in north-eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Lorraines name stems from the kingdom of Lotharingia, which in turn was named for either Emperor Lothair I or King Lothair II. It became later the Duchy of Lorraine before it was annexed to France in 1766, from 1982 until January 2016, Lorraine was an administrative region of France, when it became part of the new region Grand Est. As a region in modern France, Lorraine consisted of the four departments Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Vosges, the regional prefecture was Metz, although the largest metropolitan area of Lorraine is Nancy. Lorraine borders Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg and its inhabitants are called Lorrains in French and number about 2,356,000. Lorraines borders have changed often in its long history, in 840, Charlemagnes son Louis the Pious died, and the Carolingian Empire was divided among Louis three sons by the Treaty of Verdun of 843. On the death of Lothair I, Middle Francia was divided in three by the Treaty of Prüm in 855, with the northern third called Lotharingia and going to Lothair II and this allowed it to be a duchy in name but an independent kingdom in reality. In 870, it allied itself with East Francia while remaining an autonomous duchy, along with the rest of Europe, this prosperity was terminated in Lorraine in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. During the Renaissance, a flourishing prosperity returned to Lotharingia until the Thirty Years War, France annexed Lorraine by force in 1766, a condition that remains today. However, the population was mixed, with the north largely Germanic, speaking Lorraine Franconian, in 1871, the German Empire regained a part of Lorraine Bezirk Lothringen, corresponding to the current department of Moselle). The department formed part of the new Imperial German State of Alsace-Lorraine, however, after 1877 higher education, including state-run colleges, universities and teacher seminaries, was exclusively in German. The prevalence of German and the usage of French, though restricted, were both guaranteed by the 1911 constitution of Alsace-Lorraine. In the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the former German Empire suffered severe territorial losses, with the exception of its de facto annexation by Nazi Germany during World War II, that area has since remained a part of France. During that war, the cross of Lorraine was a symbol of Free France, the administrative region of Lorraine is larger than the 18th century duchy of Lorraine, which gradually came under French sovereignty between 1737 and 1766. The modern region includes provinces and areas that were separate from the duchy of Lorraine proper. These are, Barrois Three Bishoprics, non-contiguous territories around Metz, Verdun, several small principalities which were still part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the French Revolution. Some people consider the traditional province of Lorraine as limited to the duchy of Lorraine proper, while other people consider that it includes Barrois, the problem is that this duchy of Lorraine was originally the duchy of upper Lorraine, and did not include the entire area called Lorraine. Thus the duchies of Bar and Lorraine were united in personal union under the same duke, during the French Revolution, four departments were created on the main parts of the territories of Barrois, Three Bishoprics and the Duchy of Lorraine, Meuse, Meurthe, Moselle and Vosges
23.
Sephardi Jews
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They established communities throughout Spain and Portugal, where they traditionally resided, evolving what would become their distinctive characteristics and diasporic identity. Spoken by Sephardim in the Eastern Mediterranean, Haketia, an Arabic influenced Judaeo-Spanish variety also derived from Old Spanish, with numerous Hebrew and Aramaic terms. Taken with them in the 15th century after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Early Modern Spanish and Early Modern Portuguese, including in a mixture of the two. Traditionally spoken or used liturgically by the ex-converso Western Sephardim, taken with them during their later migration out of Iberia in the 16th to 18th centuries as conversos, after which they reverted to Judaism. In most cases these varieties have incorporated loanwords from the languages of the Americas introduced following the Spanish conquest. This article deals with Sephardim within the narrower ethnic definition, the name Sephardi means Spanish or Hispanic, derived from Sepharad, a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, Sepharad still means Spain in modern Hebrew. In its most basic form, this broad definition of a Sephardi refers to any Jew, of any ethnic background. The term Sephardi in the sense, thus describes the nusach used by Sephardi Jews in their Siddur. A nusach is defined by a liturgical traditions choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers, Sephardim traditionally pray using Minhag Sefarad. Additionally, Ethiopian Jews, whose branch of practiced Judaism is known as Haymanot, have come under the umbrella of Israels already broad Sephardic Chief Rabbinate. The divisions among Sephardim and their descendants today is largely a result of the consequences of the Royal edicts of expulsion. In the case of the Alhambra Decree of 1492, the purpose was to eliminate their influence on Spains large converso population. Indeed, a number of those Jews who had not yet joined the converso community finally chose to convert. While the stipulations were similar in the Portuguese decree, King Manuel then largely prevented Portugals Jews from leaving, by blocking Portugals ports of exit. This failure to leave Portugal was then reasoned by the king to signify a default acceptance of Catholicism by the Jews, actual physical forced conversions, however, were also experienced throughout Portugal. Sephardi Jews, therefore, encompass Jews descended from those Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula as Jews by the expiration of the respective decreed deadlines. This group is divided between those who fled south to North Africa, as opposed to those who fled eastwards to the Balkans, West Asia
24.
Tunisia
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Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa, covering 165,000 square kilometres. Its northernmost point, Cape Angela, is the northernmost point on the African continent and it is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisias population was estimated to be just under 11 million in 2014, Tunisias name is derived from its capital city, Tunis, which is located on Tunisias northeast coast. Geographically, Tunisia contains the end of the Atlas Mountains. Much of the rest of the land is fertile soil. Tunisia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic and it is considered to be the only full democracy in the Arab World. It has a human development index. In addition, Tunisia is also a state of the United Nations. Close relations with Europe – in particular with France and with Italy – have been forged through economic cooperation, privatisation, in ancient times, Tunisia was primarily inhabited by Berbers. Phoenician immigration began in the 12th century BC, these immigrants founded Carthage, a major mercantile power and a military rival of the Roman Republic, Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans, who would occupy Tunisia for most of the eight hundred years, introduced Christianity. After several attempts starting in 647, the Arabs conquered the whole of Tunisia by 697, the Ottomans held sway for over three hundred years. The French colonization of Tunisia occurred in 1881, Tunisia gained independence with Habib Bourguiba and declared the Tunisian Republic in 1957. In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country voted for parliament again on 26 October 2014, and for President on 23 November 2014. The word Tunisia is derived from Tunis, an urban hub. The present form of the name, with its Latinate suffix -ia, the French derivative Tunisie was adopted in some European languages with slight modifications, introducing a distinctive name to designate the country. Other languages remained untouched, such as the Russian Туни́с and Spanish Túnez, in this case, the same name is used for both country and city, as with the Arabic تونس, and only by context can one tell the difference. The name Tunis can be attributed to different origins and it is generally associated with the Berber root ⵜⵏⵙ, transcribed tns, which means to lay down or encampment
25.
Agadir
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It is at a distance of 508 km to the south of Casablanca. It is the capital of the Agadir-Ida Ou Tanane Prefecture and of the Souss-Massa economic region, a majority of its inhabitants speak Shilha/Tashelhit, a Berber language of the Atlas branch, as their first language. The city of Agadir together with the cities of Inezgane. According to the 2004 census, there were 346,106 inhabitants in that year, Agadir is governed by Tariq Kabagge and its one of the major urban centres of Morocco, the seventh-largest conurbation of the country after Casablanca, Rabat, Fès, Marrakech, Meknes and Tangier. The population density is quite high, three languages are spoken in the city, Tashelhit, Moroccan Arabic, and French. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1960, it has completely rebuilt with mandatory seismic standards. It is now the largest seaside resort in Morocco, where foreign tourists, since 2010 it has been well served by low-cost flights and a motorway from Tangier. The city attracts all walks of life, it has had a growth rate of over 6% per year in housing demand while housing production barely exceeds 3. 4%. The mild winter climate and good beaches have made it a winter sun destination for northern Europeans. The name Agadir is a common Berber noun agadir meaning wall, enclosure, fortified building and this noun is attested in most Berber languages, and may be a loanword from Phoenician-Punic, a Semitic language spoken in North-Africa until the fifth century CE. There are many towns in Morocco called Agadir. The city of Agadirs full name in Tashelhit is Agadir n Yighir, literally the fortress of the cape, in Moroccan Arabic, an inhabitant is a gadiri, plural gadiriyin, feminine gadiriya, plural gadiriyat. History is virtually silent on Agadir before the 12th century, in the 2nd century AD, the historian Polybius referred to North Africa on the Atlantic, a place called cap Rhysaddir, that may have been located near Agadir but its location is still under debate. At the end of the period, Agadir was a town of some notoriety. The name itself, Agadir el-arba, was attested to for the first time in 1510, quickly, the Portuguese were exposed to the hostility of the tribes of the region. From 1530, they were blockaded in Santa Cruz, Portuguese weakness showed itself on 12 March 1541 when Sherif Saâdien Mohammed ash-Sheikh captured the fortress of Santa Cruz de Aguer. Six hundred Portuguese survivors were taken prisoner, including the governor, Guterre de Monroy, the captives were redeemed by the holy men mostly from Portugal. Dona Mecia, whose husband was killed during the battle, became the wife of Sheikh Mohammed ash-Sheikh, in the same year, Mohammed ash-Sheikh released the Governor Guterre de Monroy, whom he had befriended
26.
1960 Agadir earthquake
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The 1960 Agadir earthquake occurred 29 February at 23,40 Western European Time. Agadir is located in western Morocco on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, despite the earthquakes moderate magnitude of 5.7, its maximum perceived intensity was X on the Mercalli intensity scale. Between 12,000 and 15,000 people were killed and another 12,000 injured with at least 35,000 people left homeless, making it the most destructive, particularly hard hit was the Talbordjt area. Macroseismic observations placed the epicenter about 1 kilometer north of Yachech, a sequence of minor foreshocks preceded the main event. The first shock occurred on 23 February with an intensity of III or IV and on the day of the disaster, the mainshock took place on the third day of the Muslim observance of Ramadan, immediately collapsing many hotels, apartments, markets, and office buildings. Underground water mains broke and sewer systems crumbled, the Kasbah, a dilapidated fortress which had stood for centuries, crumbled on the side of a hill. With no water pressure and most fire stations having collapsed many fires were burning in the resort city of Agadir with few firefighters. With nearly seventy percent of the city in ruins, no rescue operations were able to be initiated or arranged from within Agadir, by morning the French army and sailors from the United States Sixth Fleet approached the coast, anchored, and prepared for the rescue process. Mohammed V broadcast a request that all cities of Morocco prepare and he and his son, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, flew to the area along with several cabinet ministers to observe the impact firsthand. Military planes from France and the United States flew into Agadir to assist with the relief effort, the Moroccan Army provided emergency aid and helicopters arrived from the Ben Guerir Air Base, around 100 miles away. Upon arrival, Rear Admiral Frank Akers toured the scene and reported that the Agadir hospital was in ruins, one of the many victims of the disaster was author and lawyer Lord Maugham. He was treated at a hospital in Casablanca for minor injuries he received while at the Saada resort when it collapsed – he had been trapped under a beam for several hours. The city of Agadir was evacuated two days after the earthquake in order to avoid the spread of disease. The rescue work was hampered both by the level of destruction and by the weather – temperatures were high for the time of year. Rapid putrefaction of the thousands of corpses created a foul and unhealthy atmosphere, many victims also refused medical treatment, believing that to accept it would constitute breaking their fast. Disinfectant and DDT were sprayed over the ruins from lorries and helicopters to control disease and kill the swarms of flies which were attracted to the scene. The ruins also became infested by rats from the sewer network and rat poison was spread to kill them, larger animals, such as stray dogs. Looters were also attracted to the destruction, they were shot on sight, construction in Agadir progressed rapidly between 1945 and 1955, with specific conditions that may have contributed to the high degree of destruction
27.
Monaco
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Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco has an area of 2.02 km2 and a population of about 38,400 according to the last census of 2015. With 19,009 inhabitants per km², it is the second smallest, Monaco has a land border of 5.47 km, a coastline of 3.83 km, and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m. The highest point in the country is a pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward. Monacos most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins, through land reclamation, Monacos land mass has expanded by twenty percent, in 2005, it had an area of only 1.974 km2. Monaco is known as a playground for the rich and famous, in 2014, it was noted about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires, more than in Zürich or Geneva. Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, although Prince Albert II is a constitutional monarch, he wields immense political power. The House of Grimaldi have ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, the official language is French, but Monégasque, Italian, and English are widely spoken and understood. The states sovereignty was recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite Monacos independence and separate foreign policy, its defense is the responsibility of France, however, Monaco does maintain two small military units. Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the countrys first casino, Monte Carlo, since then, Monacos mild climate, scenery, and gambling facilities have contributed to the principalitys status as a tourist destination and recreation center for the rich. In more recent years, Monaco has become a major banking center and has sought to diversify its economy into services and small, high-value-added, the state has no income tax, low business taxes, and is well known for being a tax haven. It is also the host of the street circuit motor race Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is not formally a part of the European Union, but it participates in certain EU policies, including customs, through its relationship with France, Monaco uses the euro as its sole currency. Monaco joined the Council of Europe in 2004 and it is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Monacos name comes from the nearby 6th-century BC Phocaean Greek colony, according to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos, because the only temple of this area was the House of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos. It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, an ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before actually gaining control
28.
Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass
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Doctor of Philosophy
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A Doctor of Philosophy is a type of doctoral degree awarded by universities in many countries. Ph. D. s are awarded for a range of programs in the sciences, engineering. The Ph. D. is a degree in many fields. The completion of a Ph. D. is often a requirement for employment as a university professor, researcher, individuals with an earned doctorate can use the title of Doctor with their name and use the post-nominal letters Ph. D. The requirements to earn a Ph. D. degree vary considerably according to the country, institution, a person who attains a doctorate of philosophy is automatically awarded the academic title of doctor. A student attaining this level may be granted a Candidate of Philosophy degree at some institutions. A Ph. D. candidate must submit a project, thesis or dissertation often consisting of a body of academic research. In many countries, a candidate must defend this work before a panel of examiners appointed by the university. Universities award other types of doctorates besides the Ph. D. such as the Doctor of Musical Arts, a degree for music performers and the Doctor of Education, in 2016, ELIA launched The Florence Principles on the Doctorate in the Arts. The Florence Principles have been endorsed are supported also by AEC, CILECT, CUMULUS, the degree is abbreviated PhD, from the Latin Philosophiae Doctor, pronounced as three separate letters. In the universities of Medieval Europe, study was organized in four faculties, the faculty of arts. All of these faculties awarded intermediate degrees and final degrees, the doctorates in the higher faculties were quite different from the current Ph. D. degree in that they were awarded for advanced scholarship, not original research. No dissertation or original work was required, only lengthy residency requirements, besides these degrees, there was the licentiate. According to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany as the terminal Teachers credential in the 17th century. Typically, upon completion, the candidate undergoes an oral examination, always public, starting in 2016, in Ukraine Doctor of Philosophy is the highest education level and the first science degree. PhD is awarded in recognition of a contribution to scientific knowledge. A PhD degree is a prerequisite for heading a university department in Ukraine, upon completion of a PhD, a PhD holder can elect to continue his studies and get a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences, which is the second and the highest science degree in Ukraine. Scandinavian countries were among the early adopters of a known as a doctorate of philosophy
30.
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
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French presidential election, 2002
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The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of attention because of far-right candidate Le Pens unexpected appearance in the runoff election. Chirac ran for a term, emphasising a strong economy. However, Jospin unexpectedly finished in place behind Le Pen. This led to discussions about polling techniques and the climate of French politics. Although Le Pens political party National Front described itself as mainstream conservative, as a result, almost all French political parties called for their supporters to vote against Le Pen, including the Socialists and many that had previously been opposed to Chirac. Chirac thus went on to win the biggest landslide in a French presidential election, the average in the graph below is a smoothed 14-day weighted moving average, using only the most recent poll conducted by any given pollster within that range. The 2002 election was the first for which the President would be elected to a five-year, instead of a seven-year, lionel Jospin was, at the time, Prime Minister of France, the Jospin government was criticised for its softness on crime by its political opponents. Alarmist reporting on the TF1 and France2 television channel and other media also overemphasised the alleged crime wave and they cumulatively took enough votes away from Jospin to prevent him from reaching the second round, which he could have won. Instead Jean-Marie Le Pen faced Chirac in the second ballot, there was a widespread stirring of national public opinion, and more than one million people in France took part in street rallies, in an expression of fierce opposition to Le Pens ideas. Some held up protest signs stating Im ashamed to be French, between 900,000 and 1,300,000 people turned up to the Labor Day demonstrations and against the National Front. Hundreds of thousands of people who normally did not take part in such demonstrations came, in another unusual sight for 1 May demonstrations, French tricolour flags were commonplace. In the days before the ballot, a memorable poster was put up of Chirac with the slogan Vote for the Crook. Chirac defeated Le Pen by a landslide, President of France French presidential election,2017 Miguet, A. The French Elections of 2002, After the Earthquake, the Deluge, official results from the Constitutional Council of France, 1st round, 2nd round 2002 Presidential Vote Results by Commune, Politiquemania. Commentary on the 2002 French Presidential Elections Philosophical considerations of the very singular custom of voting, an analysis based on recent ballots in France
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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
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French presidential election, 1981
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The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic. Mitterrand and his Socialist Party received 51. 76% of the vote, while Giscard and his Union for French Democracy trailed with about 48. 24%, the Socialist Partys electoral program was called 110 Propositions for France. Mitterrand served as President of France for the full seven-year term, the most important set of circumstances that gave François Mitterrand the advantage over President Valéry Giscard dEstaing was Giscard’s incumbency itself. Usually, being an incumbent is an advantage and this was not the case, however, during the 1981 French elections. Internal political shortcomings seem to have been at least as responsible as the factors in causing Giscards electoral loss. Though a pragmatic leader, Giscard had a haughty and disparaging personality and this made him appear inaccessible not only to the French people themselves but also to other cabinet members whose support he needed to reinforce his political legitimacy. Frustrated, Chirac resigned in 1976, built his own party and proceeded to lambast Giscards policies, starting with the December 1978 Call of Cochin. The scene was set for the 1981 election when Chirac, having lost the primary, failed to fully support Giscard in the second round, clearing the path for Mitterrand to take power. Besides Giscard’s almost obsessive control over policy implementation, another internal political shortcoming of the incumbent appeared to be his ineffective tactics for deciding policy strategy, to the public at least, Giscard’s policies seemed to be sporadic, hasty, and ill-timed. His reforms proved unpopular with both the left and the right, in addition, Giscard abandoned other platforms that he had campaigned on in 1974. These policies were often couched as conspicuous pledges that ended up never quite being undertaken, (As an indication of Giscards failing popularity, a poll taken in June 1980 showed that even some people on the Left had liked and endorsed Giscard previously because of his reformist attitude. By April 1981, however, his support on the left had dropped dramatically, and there was no offsetting rise in his support on the Right. As the election wore on and Chirac joined the race, Giscard had to appeal to his rightist constituency, as a result, his popularity fell and he was thought of as an opportunist. Finally, Giscard had promised to be open to the opposition in Parliament, if Giscard’s internal political handicaps had effectively crippled him in the initial race, the external factors that decided the 1981 election were a deadly blow. The electoral and party system in France had, indeed, undergone many changes during the previous years. In particular the introduction of the two-round, majority vote requirement played a role in the election of 1981. The new electoral system divided the right and left factions within themselves during the first round. This forced the right and left to strategize for both the first and second parts of the election, in the second round, however, total unity must be achieved
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French legislative election, 1986
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The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the eighth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of party-list proportional representation. Since the 1981 election of François Mitterrand, the Presidential Majority was divided, in March 1983, Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy renounced the lefts radical Common Programme which had been agreed in the 1970s. This change of policy was justified by the will to stay in the European Monetary System. One year later, the Communist ministers refused to remain in Laurent Fabius cabinet, in opposition, the two main right-wing parties tried to forget their past quarrels. They were able to win the elections and succeeded in forcing the government to abandon its policy of limiting the financing of private schools in 1984. The Rally for the Republic, led by Jacques Chirac, abandoned the traditional dirigiste and Eurosceptic Gaullist doctrines about the economy and it was then able to sign an electoral platform with the Union for French Democracy. It proposed notably to sell the companies nationalized by President Mitterrand, however, France had also witnessed the electoral rise of the National Front. Its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, made nationalist and xenophobic remarks and he appealed to part of the conservative electorate, notably some RPR voters. The right-wing opposition was divided on the question of an alliance with the FN, in 1985, President Mitterrands decision to re-establish party-list proportional representation at the legislative election caused political outrage. The RPR/UDF opposition accused him of wanting to strengthen the FN in order to weaken the Republican Right, indeed, proportional representation was the only electoral system which permitted the election of FN deputies. Advised by Edouard Balladur, Jacques Chirac noted, however, that impeachment did not exist in the French Constitution, instead, the next majority would cohabit with Mitterrand. The right-wing cabinet would enforce its domestic policy programme and Mitterrand would keep control of foreign, eventually, the RPR/UDF coalition obtained only a two-seat majority. Consequently, for the first time of the history of the Fifth Republic, nevertheless, the Socialist Party held more seats than the polls had indicated. The FN could form a group with its 35 elected members. The decline of the French Communist Party continued, Mitterrand nominated Chirac as Prime Minister. The first cohabitation of the Fifth Republic started, the new cabinet abolished proportional representation for the next legislative elections. The cohabitation ended with the 1988 presidential election
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Haute-Savoie
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Haute-Savoie is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland, to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc, the French entrance to the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy is in Haute-Savoie. It is noted for winter sports, the first Winter Olympic Games were held at Chamonix in 1924, before 1860, the territory occupied by modern Haute-Savoie and the adjoining department of Savoie had been part of the Kingdom of Sardinia since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Annexation of the region by France was formalized in the Treaty of Turin on March 24,1860, from November 1942 to September 1943, Haute-Savoie was subjected to military occupation by Fascist Italy. The Maquis des Glières operated from Haute-Savoie, Haute-Savoie comprises four arrondissements, divided into 294 communes and 17 cantons. Haute-Savoie has the largest range of elevations of all the departments in France, the lowest point is 250 metres in the Rhône River Valley, some of the worlds best-known ski resorts are in Haute-Savoie. Its mountainous terrain makes mountain passes important to trade and economic life, some of the most important are the Col de la Forclaz and the Mont Blanc Tunnel, linking Chamonix to Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley. As of 1996,178,624 hectares of Haute-Savoie is forested, compared to 34.4 percent for the Rhone-Alpes region and 27.1 percent for France as a whole. Of the forested area 141,063 hectares is managed for timber and other forest products, national nature reserves are designated by the French government as areas where an outstanding natural heritage is present in both rare and typical areas in terms of species and geology. Management is charged to local organizations, with direction and evaluation focusing on protection for future generations. Lake Annecy is an attraction, along with the town of Évian-les-Bains, perhaps the best-known town on the French shore of Lake Geneva. Haute-Savoie is entirely within the watershed of the Rhone, there were 4,450 farmers in 1999,4,800 farmers and over 1,700 full-time farm employees at the end of 2006. In 1999, crop production was valued at €71.5 million, dairy production is a large part of the Haute-Savoie economy, earning €117.2 million in 2006 and representing 74 percent of the net animal-product worth. The average expenditure per capita in 2006 was €21,706, with the 2004–2007 rise of the euro, Swiss customer traffic decreased five or six percent. At the end of 2006, traditional small businesses represented 84 percent of businesses and 40 percent of retail space,4,301 companies were established in 2004 in Haute-Savoie, nearly 80 percent in the service sector, with a high percentage offering service to individuals. This accounted for 21.6 percent of new businesses, the most active sectors were real estate, construction, business services and the food industry. In 1999, Haute-Savoie had 2,779 industrial companies producing 13.60 percent of all business income. T, firms engaged in screw-cutting are major employers in the department. While the automotive industry is the client, firms also service the electronics, household-appliance
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Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
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French legislative election, 1988
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In 1986, the Socialist Party of President Mitterrand lost the legislative election. For the first time under the Fifth Republic, the President was forced to cohabit with a parliamentary majority. He chose the RPR leader Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister, the two heads of the executive power were rivals for the 1988 presidential election. Inspired by the example of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Chirac campaigned on an aggressively right-wing set of policies, for his part, Mitterrand presented himself as the protector of national unity. He campaigned for a united France and warned against the appropriation of the state by a clan, targeting Chirac, an alliance between the Socialists and the center-right UDF was evoked. Some politicians and commentators suggested not dissolving the National Assembly and instead nominating a UDF Prime minister, indeed, the polls indicated a pink surge if new legislative elections were organized. However, he nominated the moderate Socialist Michel Rocard to lead the cabinet, in spite of a very good result in the first round, the Presidential Majority obtained only a small parliamentary majority after the second round. Indeed, the PS and its allies won 276 seats against 271 for the Republican right-wing coalition and 27 Communists, the re-establishment of the majoritarian two-ballot system resulted in the National Front, which had held 35 seats during the previous term, dropping to only one seat. Some personalities from civil society and four UDF politicians participated in the government and they were supported by a minority of their party, which created a new parliamentary group, the Union of Centre. The executive power relied on the Presidential Majority which widened towards the Union of Centre or the French Communist Party depending on the policy being advocated by the government, notes,2 vacant seats due to the cancellation of elections in the first and second constituencies of the Oise department. A Communist group was created on 15 July 1988 following the lowering of the threshold to form a group from 30 to 20
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