Édith Cresson

Édith Cresson (née Campion; born 27 January 1934) is a French politician from the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so and only woman until Élisabeth Borne’s appointment in 2022. Her political career ended in scandal as a result of corruption charges dating from her tenure as European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology.

Cresson was appointed to the prime ministerial post by President François Mitterrand on 15 May 1991. She soon became strongly unpopular among the electorate and had to leave office after less than one year, following the Socialists’ poor showing in 1992’s regional elections. Her premiership is one of the shortest in the history of the Fifth Republic. Her strong criticism of Japanese trade practices, going so far as to compare the Japanese to “yellow ants trying to take over the world”, led to charges of racism. Discussing the sexual activities of Anglo-Saxon males, she said: “Homosexuality seems strange to me. It’s different and marginal. It exists more in the Anglo-Saxon tradition than the Latin one.”

In social policy, Cresson’s government enacted the Urban Framework Act of 1991, which sought to ensure a “right to the city” for all citizens. The Act required “local bodies to provide living and dwelling conditions which will foster social cohesion and enable conditions of segregation to be avoided.” The Cresson Government also placed considerable emphasis during its time in office on facilitating the international competitiveness of firms with under 500 employees. A law was passed in July 1991 which included several measures aimed at improving access of people with disabilities to housing, work places, and public buildings. In addition an Act of July 1991 on legal aid “gave the public (above all, foreigners who are lawfully domiciled in France) wider access to the courts.” In January 1992, housing allowances were extended to all low-income households in cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants. Under a law of 10 July 1991, access to legal information “was also included as part of the legal aid system.” A water law was passed in January 1992 “to ensure the protection of water quality and quantity and aquatic ecosystems,” and in February 1992 a law was passed to promote citizens’ consultation.

Cresson is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

While a European Commissioner, Cresson was the main target in the fraud allegations that led to the resignation of the Santer Commission in 1999. Subsequent to a fraud inquiry the European Commission said that Cresson in her capacity as the Research Commissioner “failed to act in response to known, serious and continuing irregularities over several years”. Cresson was found guilty of not reporting failures in a youth training programme from which vast sums went missing. …

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