Pasqua, Charles

▪ 1995

      At the end of 1994 things were looking good for Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, France's premier flic, or "top cop." The international assassin Carlos "the Jackal" was safely under lock and key, the French government had scored victories against Algerian and Kurdish terrorists, and he had virtually run the government during the vacation month of August. Even with his reputation as a tough law-and-order advocate whose main concern had been the stemming of illegal Arab immigration and Islamic activism, Pasqua nevertheless moved comfortably among the more traditional politicians, including Socialist Pres. François Mitterrand, and was a key factor in the Socialist-conservative "cohabitation" government. Together with Prime Minister Édouard Balladur, Pasqua topped the polls as France's most popular politician.

      Pasqua was born on April 18, 1927, in Grasse on the French Riviera, the younger son of Corsican parents. His father, a policeman, was a member of the Resistance, as was an uncle who was deported by the Nazis in 1942. By age 15 Pasqua was a courier for the local Resistance network. He never completed his law studies, instead becoming a jack-of-all-trades (a wine trader, a private detective, and eventually sales director for the pastis company Ricard). His colourful Marseillais accent later became a crucial element of his popularity, although it had earned him many snubs during his early political career.

      By the late 1940s he was an active militant in Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Rally of the French People. Pasqua created the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) in 1958 to protect Gaullist personalities from terrorist bombings and attacks by French-Algerian right-wing colonists. By the time SAC leaders had been proved to have been involved in a series of gory murders in 1973, Pasqua had long left their leadership, but these associations came often to haunt him. Neither Pres. Georges Pompidou nor his successor, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, offered him a ministerial portfolio.

      When Prime Minister Jacques Chirac resigned in 1976, Pasqua became his main ally within the neo-Gaullist party Rally for the Republic. A brilliant campaigner and political strategist, he helped Chirac win the crucial job of mayor of Paris in 1977, then masterminded a series of attacks to challenge Giscard that cost the latter the presidency in the 1981 elections. Once Giscard was out of the way, Chirac was established as the natural leader of the right wing, and he duly appointed Pasqua as his interior minister in 1986. When Mitterrand won the presidency, Pasqua forged a good relationship with Balladur. In 1993 Pasqua was instrumental in convincing Chirac to refuse another cohabitation prime ministership, suggesting Balladur in his place.

      By year-end 1994 Pasqua had still not announced whether he would support Chirac or Balladur in the May 1995 presidential election, while his own name started appearing in polls as a possible candidate. Now the strongest kingmaker in France, he was expected to support the candidate that would promise him the office of prime minister. (ANNE-ELLSABETH MOUTET)

* * *