Robert Boulin
Encyclopedia
Robert Boulin was a French politician who served as Minister of Labour in the French Cabinet and was at the centre of a major real-estate scandal that ended only with his death in mysterious circumstances. At the time of his death he was the longest serving minister in post-revolution French history; only Louis XIV's Colbert
served longer.
– an achievement for which he was awarded the croix de guerre
– Boulin was known for his moderation; the courtesy with which he treated his political opponents led to a reputation as a skilled negotiator.
Boulin's first ministerial position was as refugee minister in 1961, when France was winding up the Algerian war preparing to repatriate more than a million French settlers.
Boulin served in the three governments following the establishment of the Fifth Republic
in nine different posts; he occupied ministerial posts for fifteen years. His only break in ministerial service came from 1973 to 1976, when he was sidelined for having worked for Chaban-Delmas against Valéry Giscard in the presidential elections.
as Prime Minister of France
, the satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard enchaîné
began to publish a series of articles that it said revealed Boulin had taken undue advantage of his position to obtain favourable terms on a series of real estate deals in the French Riviera
.
The paper printed photographs of letters on official ministry letterhead that purported to show that Boulin had tried to get government representatives in the region to authorize construction of 26 houses in an area where buildings were barred for environmental reasons, and that Boulin tried to get Henri Tournet, the property developer at the center of the scandal, promoted to the Legion of Honor.
Further, according to the Le Canard enchaîné, Tournet sold Boulin 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) near Ramatuele in 1974 that the developer had already sold to someone else. Boulin said he knew nothing of the dispute until 1978, but a letter quoted by the Canard seemed to indicate that the minister knew beforehand. The paper further claimed that Boulin had paid $8,000 for the land, a third of what the other buyer had paid a year earlier, and was able to get a building permit – within a month, which was unusual – in a wooded area where building had previously not taken place.
. Next to his car, which was parked nearby, was an empty container of barbiturates. In the car were envelopes addressed to Boulin's wife and to his colleagues at the Labor Ministry.
Before the contents of the envelopes were known, top governmental leaders publicly accused Le Canard enchaîné of being morally responsible for Boulin's death, and there were broad hints the government might use the reaction to the Boulin death to seek stricter libel laws, as was done in the 1930s after the suicide of Roger Salengro
, the Socialist minister in Léon Blum
's Popular Front
government, in 1936. Salengro was widely believed to have been hounded by Fascist weeklies.
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
, then President of the National Assembly, who had been politically identified with Boulin for many years, told a special memorial session of the assembly that it should "draw the lessons of this tragedy, of this assassination." After meeting with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Prime Minister Barre called for "meditation upon the consequences of certain ignominies", and spoke of "a baseness." The president joined in the criticism: Boulin, said Giscard, "was unable to resist the campaign of harassment he was subjected to. Public opinion should severely condemn any other similar campaigns."
The release of letters found in his car and that he had mailed from a Paris suburb on the day of his death threw fuel on the flames of controversy, as he apparently posthumously accused his fellow Gaullists, especially Justice Minister Alain Peyrefitte
of "obvious collusion" with those who were out to destroy him, whom he named as Henri Tournet, an "ambitious" investigating magistrate and "certain political circles from which my own political friends are, alas, not excluded" and implied that the then parliamentary majority was, in Boulin's phrase, "a basket of crabs."
In a separate note to the police, Boulin wrote "I have decided to drown myself in a lake in the forest, of Rambouillet, where I enjoyed riding horseback."
Before his death, Boulin also wrote letters to Agence France-Presse
, Le Monde
, his wife Collette, and to Chaban-Delmas.
In the version published by Agence France-Presse, he accused a young Normandy judge of leaking details of the real estate case in an effort to seek personal publicity, and attacked the Minister of Justice: "this leaking of the secrets of the investigation failed to move a justice minister more concerned about his career than about the smooth functioning of justice."
Boulin alleged that the judge let the real estate operator go free after serving a month in jail in exchange for his cooperation in implicating the labor minister. The land agent, Henri Tournet, was "blackmailing" Boulin by trying to make it appear, untruthfully, that he knew beforehand that a building lot he bought from him on the French Riviera belonged to someone else, Boulin claimed.
Boulin said that upon being freed from prison, Tournet went to Le Monde and Le Canard enchaîné, "whose basic motivation is maliciousness."
The irregularities of the case were widely covered: that the lake in which he allegedly drowned was apparently nowhere more than one foot seven inches in depth; that Boulin's face had been badly battered and a cheek bone fractured, which went unmentioned in the official autopsy report; that the local doctor who signed the certificate was only allowed a hurried glimpse of the body which had already been transferred, on orders by high officials, to a waiting helicopter; that the jars containing Mr Boulin's lungs, necessary to confirm a death by drowning, disappeared mysteriously after someone broke into the laboratory fridge.
At a press conference on 17 January 1984, the family accused the Versailles prosecutor of "wanting to hide the real cause of the death of Robert Boulin" and of "shielding the assassins from the law". The family was then prosecuted by the minister for justice for defaming a magistrate, and fined 800 francs; they were pardoned personally by François Mitterrand
on his ascension to the Presidency a few weeks later.
In September 1991, the Paris Public Prosecutor announced that he was closing the dossier opened in 1983; the family continued to accuse the Gaullist party of a cover-up, and possible implication in Boulin's death itself. The issue was re-ignited in January 2002 by a series of investigations televised on Canal Plus, in which Juliette Garrat, the doctor who performed the autopsy, said she was now sure that Mr Boulin's death was a "murder disguised as suicide" and the substitute prosecutor at the time also came forward to say "orders were given" by the authorities to stick to the verdict of suicide.
On 21 June 2007, shortly after Jacques Chirac
, also a Gaullist, handed over power to Nicolas Sarkozy
, the Paris Public Prosecutor met with Boulin's daughter, Fabienne Burgeat, and announced that he was considering re-opening the investigation as "new evidence" had come to light.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...
served longer.
Career till 1978
A Gaullist who joined the Free French movement in 1940, and rose to lead the movement in NavarreNavarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
– an achievement for which he was awarded the croix de guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
– Boulin was known for his moderation; the courtesy with which he treated his political opponents led to a reputation as a skilled negotiator.
Boulin's first ministerial position was as refugee minister in 1961, when France was winding up the Algerian war preparing to repatriate more than a million French settlers.
Boulin served in the three governments following the establishment of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
in nine different posts; he occupied ministerial posts for fifteen years. His only break in ministerial service came from 1973 to 1976, when he was sidelined for having worked for Chaban-Delmas against Valéry Giscard in the presidential elections.
Accusations in the Press
In 1979, when he was being tapped as a successor to the unpopular Raymond BarreRaymond Barre
Raymond Octave Joseph Barre was a French centre-right politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three Presidents and later served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981...
as Prime Minister of France
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
, the satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard enchaîné
Le Canard enchaîné
Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France. Founded in 1915, it features investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons.-Early...
began to publish a series of articles that it said revealed Boulin had taken undue advantage of his position to obtain favourable terms on a series of real estate deals in the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
.
The paper printed photographs of letters on official ministry letterhead that purported to show that Boulin had tried to get government representatives in the region to authorize construction of 26 houses in an area where buildings were barred for environmental reasons, and that Boulin tried to get Henri Tournet, the property developer at the center of the scandal, promoted to the Legion of Honor.
Further, according to the Le Canard enchaîné, Tournet sold Boulin 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) near Ramatuele in 1974 that the developer had already sold to someone else. Boulin said he knew nothing of the dispute until 1978, but a letter quoted by the Canard seemed to indicate that the minister knew beforehand. The paper further claimed that Boulin had paid $8,000 for the land, a third of what the other buyer had paid a year earlier, and was able to get a building permit – within a month, which was unusual – in a wooded area where building had previously not taken place.
Death and controversy
On 29 October 1979, Boulin had lunch with his son Bertrand, and subsequently disappeared. Police found his body on the morning of 30 October in a pond in the forest of RambouilletRambouillet
Rambouillet is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.It is located in the suburbs of Paris southwest from the center...
. Next to his car, which was parked nearby, was an empty container of barbiturates. In the car were envelopes addressed to Boulin's wife and to his colleagues at the Labor Ministry.
Before the contents of the envelopes were known, top governmental leaders publicly accused Le Canard enchaîné of being morally responsible for Boulin's death, and there were broad hints the government might use the reaction to the Boulin death to seek stricter libel laws, as was done in the 1930s after the suicide of Roger Salengro
Roger Salengro
Roger Henri Charles Salengro was a French politician. He achieved fame as Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government in 1936...
, the Socialist minister in Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
's Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
government, in 1936. Salengro was widely believed to have been hounded by Fascist weeklies.
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. In addition, for almost half a century, he was Mayor of Bordeaux and a deputy for the Gironde département....
, then President of the National Assembly, who had been politically identified with Boulin for many years, told a special memorial session of the assembly that it should "draw the lessons of this tragedy, of this assassination." After meeting with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Prime Minister Barre called for "meditation upon the consequences of certain ignominies", and spoke of "a baseness." The president joined in the criticism: Boulin, said Giscard, "was unable to resist the campaign of harassment he was subjected to. Public opinion should severely condemn any other similar campaigns."
The release of letters found in his car and that he had mailed from a Paris suburb on the day of his death threw fuel on the flames of controversy, as he apparently posthumously accused his fellow Gaullists, especially Justice Minister Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Peyrefitte was a French scholar and politician.He was a confidant of Charles De Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland....
of "obvious collusion" with those who were out to destroy him, whom he named as Henri Tournet, an "ambitious" investigating magistrate and "certain political circles from which my own political friends are, alas, not excluded" and implied that the then parliamentary majority was, in Boulin's phrase, "a basket of crabs."
In a separate note to the police, Boulin wrote "I have decided to drown myself in a lake in the forest, of Rambouillet, where I enjoyed riding horseback."
Before his death, Boulin also wrote letters to Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, his wife Collette, and to Chaban-Delmas.
In the version published by Agence France-Presse, he accused a young Normandy judge of leaking details of the real estate case in an effort to seek personal publicity, and attacked the Minister of Justice: "this leaking of the secrets of the investigation failed to move a justice minister more concerned about his career than about the smooth functioning of justice."
Boulin alleged that the judge let the real estate operator go free after serving a month in jail in exchange for his cooperation in implicating the labor minister. The land agent, Henri Tournet, was "blackmailing" Boulin by trying to make it appear, untruthfully, that he knew beforehand that a building lot he bought from him on the French Riviera belonged to someone else, Boulin claimed.
Boulin said that upon being freed from prison, Tournet went to Le Monde and Le Canard enchaîné, "whose basic motivation is maliciousness."
Investigation
Shortly after his death, the Boulin family declared that they did not accept the verdict of suicide and began waging a campaign in the press and the courts to re-open the case, which they believed was murder. On 22 October 1983, his body was ordered to be exhumed for an additional autopsy.The irregularities of the case were widely covered: that the lake in which he allegedly drowned was apparently nowhere more than one foot seven inches in depth; that Boulin's face had been badly battered and a cheek bone fractured, which went unmentioned in the official autopsy report; that the local doctor who signed the certificate was only allowed a hurried glimpse of the body which had already been transferred, on orders by high officials, to a waiting helicopter; that the jars containing Mr Boulin's lungs, necessary to confirm a death by drowning, disappeared mysteriously after someone broke into the laboratory fridge.
At a press conference on 17 January 1984, the family accused the Versailles prosecutor of "wanting to hide the real cause of the death of Robert Boulin" and of "shielding the assassins from the law". The family was then prosecuted by the minister for justice for defaming a magistrate, and fined 800 francs; they were pardoned personally by François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
on his ascension to the Presidency a few weeks later.
In September 1991, the Paris Public Prosecutor announced that he was closing the dossier opened in 1983; the family continued to accuse the Gaullist party of a cover-up, and possible implication in Boulin's death itself. The issue was re-ignited in January 2002 by a series of investigations televised on Canal Plus, in which Juliette Garrat, the doctor who performed the autopsy, said she was now sure that Mr Boulin's death was a "murder disguised as suicide" and the substitute prosecutor at the time also came forward to say "orders were given" by the authorities to stick to the verdict of suicide.
On 21 June 2007, shortly after Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, also a Gaullist, handed over power to Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, the Paris Public Prosecutor met with Boulin's daughter, Fabienne Burgeat, and announced that he was considering re-opening the investigation as "new evidence" had come to light.