In 1946 Chaban-Delmas was elected to France's Chamber of Deputies, and he also served as mayor of Bordeaux for nearly fifty years (1947–1995). Although an ideological Gaullist, his party affiliation was Radical Socialist, the Center-Left party that had dominated the French Third Republic (1870–1940) and that, like the equally politically volatile Fourth Republic (1944–1958), concentrated state power in the hands of governments drawn from the National Assembly.
The wars and crises over decolonization, especially those in Indochina and Algeria, led to the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, which designated a more powerful role for the executive branch of government, especially in foreign relations. In his role as president of the National Assembly during 1958–1969, Chaban-Delmas reassured the public that the body would retain most of its governing authority. In 1961 he visited Washington, D.C., to meet with President John F. Kennedy, conveying to him President de Gaulle's warnings about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Following Georges Pompidou's election as president in 1969, Chaban-Delmas assumed the post of premier, which he held until 1972. Continuing to promote economic modernization to meet France's global challenges, he also took aim at long-standing social divisions that he saw as obstructing socioeconomic progress. Chaban-Delmas's 1974 presidential bid failed to advance beyond the first round of voting, but he remained a popular political figure, serving again as president of the National Assembly during 1978–1981 and 1986–1988. The author of several books, including his own memoirs and a biography of de Gaulle, Chaban-Delmas died in Paris on 10 November 2000.
Maarten L. Pereboom
Further Reading
Chaban-Delmas, Jacques. Mémoires pour demain. Paris: Flammarion, 1997.
