Jean-Pierre Raffarin OQ (born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin resigned, he said that his decision was not based on the outcome of the vote. Opinion polls following his resignation suggested that Raffarin was one of France's least popular Prime Ministers since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958. However, according to the book France: 1815–2003, written by Martin Evans and Emmanuel Godwin, Raffarin was "a remarkably popular Prime Minister" despite his ability "to state the obvious and to make empty statements". He was also Vice President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014. Born 3 August 1948, Raffarin grew up in Poitiers, the son of a prominent national figure: his father Jean Raffarin was vice-minister of Agriculture in the government of Pierre Mendes-France (1954–1955). He studied law at Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas and later graduated from the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. He started his professional career in marketing. In the 1970s, his first political commitment was in the association of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's young supporters. Defining himself as a "giscardien", he joined the staff of Lionel Stoléru, Secretary of state for Manual Workers and Immigration, and the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the centre-right confederation the Union for French Democracy (UDF). In the 1980s, he started a career in local politics in Poitou-Charentes region. With the support of René Monory, the local political leader, he took the chair of the regional council in 1988. Seven years later, he was elected senator of Vienne département. ... Source: Article "Jean-Pierre Raffarin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
