Editing Edgar Faure (section)

==Life==
Faure was born in [[Béziers]], [[Hérault]], to a French Army doctor. He was nearsighted yet a brilliant student since his youth, earning a [[baccalauréat]] at 15, as well as a law degree at 19 in Paris.<ref name=time/><ref name=brit/> At 21 years of age he became a member of the [[bar association]], the youngest lawyer in France to do so at the time. While living in Paris, he became active in [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] politics; he joined the [[Radical Party (France)|Radical Party]] in 1929.

[[File:Faure1939 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Faure in 1939]]
During the [[Nazi Germany|German]] occupation of [[World War II]], he joined the [[French Resistance]] in the [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]]. In 1942, he fled to [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s headquarters in [[Algiers]], where he was made head of the Provisional Government of the Republic's [[Legislature|legislative department]]. At the end of the war, he served as French counsel for the prosecution at the [[Nuremberg Trials]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHGdCgAAQBAJ&q=Edgar+Faure+French+counsel+for+the+prosecutor+at+the+Nuremberg+Trials.&pg=PT78|title=The Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis brought to justice|last=Macdonald|first=Alexander|date=2015-09-08|publisher=Arcturus Publishing|isbn=9781784281267|access-date=17 October 2020|archive-date=13 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813151001/https://books.google.com/books?id=xHGdCgAAQBAJ&q=Edgar+Faure+French+counsel+for+the+prosecutor+at+the+Nuremberg+Trials.&pg=PT78|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1946, he was elected to the [[French Parliament]] as a Radical.<ref name=brit/> While the popularity of his party declined to less than 10% of the total vote, none of the other parties was able to gain a clear majority. Therefore, early on, his party often played a disproportionately important role in the formation of governments. He thus led the cabinet in 1952 and from 1955 to 1956. Faure was a leader of the more conservative wing of the party, opposing the party's [[Left-wing|left]], under [[Pierre Mendès France]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

Faure's views changed during the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]]; after initial opposition to the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]] (he voted against presidential election by universal suffrage in the [[1962 French presidential election referendum|1962 referendum]]), he eventually became a [[Gaullism|Gaullist]]. The [[Gaullist Party]], the [[Union for the New Republic]], sent him on an unofficial mission to the [[China|People's Republic of China]] in 1963. In government he served in successive ministries: Agriculture (1966–1968), National Education (1968–1969, where he was responsible for pushing through reform of the universities) and Social Affairs (1972–1973). He declined to be a candidate at the [[1974 French presidential election|1974 presidential election]], in which he supported [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] against the Gaullist candidate, [[Jacques Chaban-Delmas]].

He had the reputation of a careerist and the nickname of "weathercock". He replied with humour, "it is not the weathercock which turns; it is the wind!"

He was a member of the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] for the [[Jura (department)|Jura]] department from 1946 to 1958, as well as for the [[Doubs]] department from 1967 to 1980. He presided over the National Assembly from 1973 to 1978. He sought another term as President of the Assembly President in 1978 but was defeated by Chaban-Delmas. Faure was a Senator from 1959 to 1967 for Jura and again, in 1980, for Doubs. In 1978, he became a member of the [[Académie Française]].

On the regional, departmental and local levels, Edgar Faure was Mayor of [[Port-Lesney]], Jura from 1947 to 1971 and again from 1983 to 1988, as well as Mayor of [[Pontarlier]] between 1971 and 1977; he served as President of the General Council of the Jura department from 1949 to 1967, then member of the General Council of the Doubs from 1967 to 1979, President of the Regional Council of [[Franche-Comté]] (1974–1981, 1982–1988). He played a key role during the creation and first years of the [[Assembly of European Regions]] (AER), becoming his first president in 1985 and staying in that position until 1988.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}