{{Short description|French politician and journalist}} {{infobox officeholder | name = Claude Estier | image = Claude Estier (19e Maghreb des Livres, Paris, 16 fév. 2013) (cropped).jpg | office1 = Member of the French Senate | constituency1 = Paris | term_start1 = 1 October 1986 | term_end1 = 30 September 2004 | office2 = Member of the French National Assembly | constituency2 = {{ill|Paris's 25th constituency|fr|Vingt-cinquième circonscription de Paris de 1958 à 1986}} | term_start2 = 23 June 1981 | term_end2 = 27 June 1986 | office3 = Member of the European Parliament | constituency3 = France | term_start3 = 21 June 1979 | term_end3 = 16 April 1981{{efn |group=note |He had to quit before the end of his term as he was elected in 1981 to the French National Assembly}} | other_party = PS | office4 = Member of the French National Assembly | constituency4 = {{ill|Paris's 25th constituency|fr|Vingt-cinquième circonscription de Paris de 1958 à 1986}} | term_start4 = 25 June 1967 | term_end4 = 24 June 1968 | birth_name = Claude Hasday Ezratty | birth_date = {{birth date|1925|06|08|df=yes}} | birth_place = Paris, France | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|03|10|1925|06|08|df=yes}} | death_place = Paris, France | party = French Section of the Workers' International (1945-1947), Unitary Socialist Party (1948), Convention of Republican Institutions (1964-1971), Socialist Party (1971-2016) | alma_mater = Sciences Po }}
'''Claude Estier''' (born '''Claude Hasday Ezratty''';{{efn |group=note |He became officially "Claude Estier" by a decree published in the Official Journal on 11 September 1983}} 8 June 1925 – 10 March 2016)<ref>[http://www.senat.fr/senateur/estier_claude86025d.html CV at Senate website] {{in lang|fr}}.</ref> was a French politician and journalist. He was deputy of Paris from 1967 to 1968 and again from 1981 to 1986, then senator from 1986 to 2004 and was president of the socialist group in the Senate from 1988 to 2004.
==Biography==
===Early life=== Estier's father was a supporter of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). Because of this, Estier grew up in a socialist culture throughout his youth. His professors included Robert Verdier and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
===Resistance===
Estier participated in the Résistance in 1942, engaging in the carriage of arms and newspapers in Lyon until 1944. In charge of reports of listening to ''Radio Londres'' and Radio Algiers, the Free France broadcasts, he ended the war in the French Forces of the Interior.
In 1945, he then became a member of the centre-left French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). A very critical article on the SFIO Interior Minister Jules Moch's harsh repression of the 1947 strikes published in the newspaper Combat at the end of 1947 led to his exclusion from the party.
He campaigned in 1948 for the Unitary Socialist Party{{efn |group=note |Not to be confused with the later Unified Socialist Party (PSU), of whom Gilles Martinet was a cofounder}} where he met, among others, Gilles Martinet and Pierre Stibbe. All three were former Résistance fighters who advocated a left-wing political line between the French Communist Party and the anti-communist SFIO.
===Journalist===
In 1955 he joined the political editorial team of daily newspaper ''Le Monde'', then quit it in 1958 because of the newspaper's "{{lang|fr|attentiste}}" attitude towards the return to power of General de Gaulle.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2016/03/10/l-ancien-senateur-claude-estier-est-mort_4880572_3382.html|title=L'ancien sénateur Claude Estier est mort|date=10 March 2016|publisher=Le Monde|language=French|accessdate=11 March 2016}}</ref> He then joined another newspaper, Libération and began a rapprochement with François Mitterrand. He was part of the original core of the weekly Nouvel Observateur.
He was a long-time supporter of the Algerian cause, establishing ties with Algerian nationalists such as Ferhat Abbas.
==Political career==
===National Assembly===
He was elected as a candidate for Mitterrand's Convention of Republican Institutions, part of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left electoral coalition, in the legislative election of 1967 against Alexandre Sanguinetti, Minister of Veterans and War Victims in the third Pompidou government under President de Gaulle. He lost his seat the following year, after the early dissolution of the National Assembly in the aftermath of the May 1968 events.
He was elected again in 1981 and became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly from 1983 to 1986.
He had put a provisional end to his activities as a journalist in 1967, but from 1972 to 1986 he led the official weekly of the Socialist Party, ''L'Unité''. From 1981 to 1988, he regularly took part as such in the animated weekly political debate ''Vendredi Soir'' on France Inter with Jean d'Ormesson (a right-wing journalist and writer), Pierre Charpy (his counterpart as head of ''La Lettre de la Nation'', the weekly of the Rally for the Republic) and Roland Leroy (editor-in-chief of the Communist daily ''L'Humanité'').
===Senate=== In 1986, he entered the Senate in 1988 and became President of the Socialist Group until his retirement in October 2004.
==Post-Senator career== After this, he returned to writing about history and politics by publishing four new books with Le Cherche-Midi, including ''François Hollande: journal d'une victoire'' (2012).
===Elected offices held=== *Deputy representing Paris (1967-1968 and 1981-1986) *Paris City councillor (1971-1989 and 1995-2001) *Member of the European Parliament (1979-1981) *Île-de-France regional councilor (1981-1986) *Senator representing Paris (1986-2004)
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} |- {{s-bef|rows=2|before=André Méric}} {{s-ttl|title=Leader of Socialist Group in the Senate|years=1988–2004}} {{s-aft|rows=2|after=Jean-Pierre Bel}} |- {{s-ttl|title=Leader of the Opposition in the Senate|years=1988–2004}} |- {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Estier, Claude}} Category:1925 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Politicians from Paris Category:French Section of the Workers' International politicians Category:Convention of Republican Institutions politicians Category:Socialist Party (France) politicians Category:Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Category:Deputies of the 7th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Category:French senators of the Fifth Republic Category:Senators of Paris Category:MEPs for France 1979–1984 Category:Lycée Carnot alumni Category:Sciences Po alumni Category:French Resistance members