Michel Poniatowski

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Michel Poniatowski (16 May 1922 – 15 January 2002) was a French politician from a noble Polish family. He studied at the École nationale d’administration and began his career in finance and government service. He helped found the Independent Republicans and later led the party that became the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

He was Minister of Health from April 5, 1973, to May 27, 1974, and then Minister of the Interior from May 27, 1974, to March 29, 1977, in the governments of Georges Pompidou and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. As interior minister, he played a key role in Giscard d’Estaing’s 1974 election victory. He reformed some procedures, including ending the requirement for personal hotel registers. In August 1975 he ordered the French military to suppress a nationalist rebellion in Corsica; two gendarmes were killed, sparking heavy criticism of him and Jacques Chirac.

After leaving the interior ministry, Poniatowski helped found the UDF in 1978 and served as an ambassador and Giscard’s representative until 1981. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989, leading the Development and Cooperation committee and later the Energy, Research and Technology committee. In 1983 he supported a controversial merger of right-wing lists with the National Front in Dreux. He was a senator for Val-d’Oise from 1989 to 1995 and continued to advocate for electoral deals with the National Front. In the 1990s he remained active in right-wing politics and helped form the Liberal-Christian Right. He retired from public life in 1999 and died in 2002.