SCHWARTZENBERG, ROGER-GERARD

SCHWARTZENBERG, ROGER-GERARD (1943– ), French professor of law and politician. Born in Pau, France, Schwartzenberg, a brilliant student and scholar, was appointed professor at the law school of Orleans at the age of 25. While pursuing his university career, he joined the Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche (MRG), a moderate leftist party traditionally pro-Israel, of which he was elected president in 1981. A long-time supporter of French President Mitterrand, Schwartzenberg was entrusted with the difficult university portfolio, as Secretary of State for University Affairs, in the Socialist government in 1983. His main task was to streamline the cumbersome structure of the French university system while retaining it most positive assets, richness and diversity; its democratic character; and above all, the fact that tuition is completely free. He continued to sit as a deputy in the National Assembly in the 1980s and 1990s, while also serving as mayor of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne) in 1989–95. In 2000–2 he was minister of research. Schwartzenberg wrote a number of textbooks and political pamphlets: La campagne présidentielle de 1965 (1967); La force juridique des décisions administratives (1968); Traité de sociologie politique (1971); and L'État Spectacle, essai sur et contre le star-system en politique (1977). (Gideon Kouts)