Michel Jean-Pierre Debré (French: [miʃɛl dəbʁe]; 15 January 1912 – 2 August 1996) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962. In terms of political personality, Debré was intense and immovable and had a tendency for rhetorical extremism.
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Michel Debré in the context of Constitution of France
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic (French: la Constitution de la Cinquième République), and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a 1971 decision of the Constitutional Council. The current Constitution regards the separation of church and state, democracy, social welfare, and indivisibility as core principles of the French state.
Charles de Gaulle was the main driving force in introducing the new constitution and inaugurating the Fifth Republic, while the text was drafted by Michel Debré. Since then, the constitution has been amended twenty-five times, notably in 2008 and most recently in 2024.
Michel Debré in the context of École nationale d'administration
The École nationale d'administration (French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɑsjɔnal dadministʁɑsjɔ̃]; ENA; English: National School of Administration) was a French grande école, created in 1945 by the then provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Debré, to democratize access to the senior civil service. The school was frequently criticized from the 1970s onward for having built an incredibly elitist culture as well as being a stronghold for technocrats. As a result, it was dissolved on 31 December 2021 and replaced by the Institut national du service public (INSP).
The ENA selected and supervised the initial training of senior French officials. It was considered to be one of the most academically demanding French schools, both because of its low acceptance rates and because a large majority of its candidates had already graduated from other elite schools in the country such as Sciences Po or the École Polytechnique. Thus, within French society, the ENA stood as one of the main pathways to high positions in the public and private sectors. Indeed, 4 Presidents of France from the beginning of the 5th Republic in 1958 to the present day (including Emmanuel Macron) and many prime-ministers and ministers, studied at the ENA.